tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/jakarta-23993/articlesJakarta – La Conversation2024-01-25T13:16:51Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2201202024-01-25T13:16:51Z2024-01-25T13:16:51ZFrom New York to Jakarta, land in many coastal cities is sinking faster than sea levels are rising<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/567456/original/file-20231228-21-99pvh5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5991%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Infrastructure can increase vulnerabilities to coastal cities like New York.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/new-york-city-skyline-royalty-free-image/523392100?phrase=new+york+sea+level+rise&searchscope=image%2Cfilm&adppopup=true">GlennisEhi/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-sea-level">Sea level rise</a> has already put coastal cities on notice thanks to increasing storm surges and even <a href="https://coast.noaa.gov/states/fast-facts/recurrent-tidal-flooding.html">sunny day</a> flooding at high tide. These challenges will continue to grow because global projections point to a mean sea level rise of at least one foot above year-2000 levels by the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/26/its-absolutely-guaranteed-the-best-and-worst-case-scenarios-for-sea-level-rise">end of this century</a>.</p>
<p>However, many cities are facing another factor making them even more vulnerable to rising waters: <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/05/30/land-sinking-us-subsidence-sea-level/">land subsidence</a>. </p>
<p>The three of us – <a href="https://web.uri.edu/gso/meet/pei-chin-wu/">Pei-Chin Wu</a>, <a href="https://web.uri.edu/gso/meet/matt-wei/">Meng (Matt) Wei</a> and <a href="https://web.uri.edu/gso/meet/steven-dhondt/">Steven D'Hondt</a> – are scientists at the University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography working with the U.S. Geological Survey to research challenges facing waterfront cities. Our findings indicate that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL098477">land is sinking</a> faster than sea levels are rising in many coastal cities throughout the world. </p>
<p>By using radar images of the Earth’s surface collected from orbiting satellites, we measured subsidence rates in 99 coastal cities worldwide. These rates are highly variable within cities and from city to city, but if they continue, many metropolises will experience flooding much sooner than projected by sea level rise models.</p>
<p>Cities in South, Southeast and East Asia are seeing the most rapid rates of subsidence. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Taipei is sinking: University of Rhode Island | Taiwan News | RTI.</span></figcaption>
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<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/16/headway/indonesia-nusantara-jakarta.html">Indonesia</a>, for example, is moving its capital 800 miles from Jakarta to Nusantara in large part because Jakarta is sinking at an alarming rate due to groundwater extraction. </p>
<p>Other regions are not immune. Our research with Tom Parsons of the U.S. Geological Survey found that most of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1029/2022EF003465">New York City</a>is sinking between 1 to 4 millimeters per year due to a combination of <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/glacial-adjustment.html">glacial rebound</a> and the weight of its more than 1 million buildings. In a city where sea level is projected to rise between 8 and 30 inches by 2050, subsidence <a href="https://www.uri.edu/news/2023/06/new-york-city-is-sinking-and-its-not-alone/">further increases its vulnerability</a> to coastal storms. </p>
<p>In the U.S., most of the cities on the Atlantic coast are subsiding due to glacial rebound. Even if the rate is low at minus-1 millimeter per year, it should be accounted. Other cities in the U.S., especially in the Gulf of Mexico, including Houston and New Orleans, also face subsidence. </p>
<p>Governments around the world are facing the challenge of coastal areas that are subsiding, and there is a shared global challenge of mitigation against a growing flooding hazard.</p>
<p>While our research continues to evolve – for example, by using machine learning to improve our monitoring capability – we urge city planners, emergency managers and other decision-makers to account for subsidence in the plans they are making today to prepare for the impacts of rising sea levels in the future.</p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct the rate at which New York City is sinking.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220120/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pei-Chin Wu is working towards her PhD degree at the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island and receives funding from the Ministry of Education in Taiwan.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven D’Hondt receives funding from Rhode Island Sea Grant.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Meng (Matt) Wei does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Land subsidence is a factor as preparations are made for rising sea levels and strengthening storms. Human infrastructure, including buildings and groundwater extraction, increases vulnerabilities.Pei-Chin Wu, Ph.D. Candidate in Oceangraphy, University of Rhode IslandMeng (Matt) Wei, Associate Professor of Oceanography, University of Rhode IslandSteven D’Hondt, Professor of Oceanography, Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode IslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1811342022-04-14T09:57:28Z2022-04-14T09:57:28ZA tale of two cities: why Indonesia is planning a new capital on Borneo – and abandoning Jakarta. Podcast<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457879/original/file-20220413-28-tk7tav.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C3%2C799%2C489&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An artistic impression of Indonesia's new presidential palace, designed by the artist Nyoman Nuarta. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CYSve2zpoHk/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=">nyoman_nuarta via Instagram</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indonesia plans to move its capital city from Jakarta on the island of Java to a new forest city on the island of Borneo called Nusantara. In this episode of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/the-conversation-weekly-98901">The Conversation Weekly podcast</a>, we talk to three experts in urban planning and ecology to find out why – and what the environmental impacts of the project could be. </p>
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<p>Jakarta is a city struggling to keep its head above water. “It’s been attacked from both sides – from the river and from the land,” says Eka Permanasari, associate professor in urban design at Monash University, Australia.</p>
<p>The city experiences <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/02/26/climate-change-behind-2020-floods-that-displaced-thousands-in-jakarta-agency-says.html">extreme amounts of rainfall, worsened by climate change</a>, which regularly causes severe flooding. Coupled with this, massive extraction of ground water from aquifers underneath the city is causing the Jakarta to sink. “If you go to the northern part of Jakarta, you may see the road is higher than the houses next to it. In some other areas, it’s actually sinking more than 15cm per year,” says Permanasari.</p>
<p>Due to the problems facing Jakarta, plans to relocate Indonesia’s capital have a long history. During the colonial era, the Dutch considered abandoning the city, then called Batavia, due to flooding, high temperatures and disease linked to stagnant water. Since Indonesian independence in 1945, successive administrations have also floated plans to relocate the capital, but these never came to fruition. </p>
<p>Now, the government of President Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, is forging ahead with a new project, estimated to cost around US$35 billion. In January, Indonesia’s parliament <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesia-passes-law-relocate-capital-remote-borneo-2022-01-18/">passed a bill</a> to relocate the country’s capital city from Jakarta on the island of Java to the East Kalimantan province of Borneo. The government then announced the city’s name: <a href="https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/politics/article/3163853/indonesia-names-its-new-us34-billion-capital-nusantara">Nusantara</a>, which loosely translates as archipelago in sanskrit. </p>
<p>Hendricus Andy Simamarta is a lecturer in urban planning at the University of Indonesia and president of the Indonesian Association of Urban and Regional Planners. He says a big reason for relocating the capital is to shift Indonesia’s centre of gravity away from Java. “We are very dependent on Java economically, more than 50% of our economy is located in Java,” he says. Simamarta is sceptical that moving the capital to East Kalimantan will re-balance the economy, but he says at least it can start to “re-orientate our mindset of development”. </p>
<p>The dream for Nusantara is for a new high-tech, smart city, surrounded by forest. Borneo is an island with rainforests home to an abundance of different species, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-surveyed-borneos-orangutans-and-found-100-000-had-disappeared-91944">orangutan</a> and Asian elephants. However, Alex Lechner, an associate professor in landscape ecology at Monash University, Indonesia, who is based in Jakarta, says the area planned for Nusantara’s construction is currently covered by eucalyptus plantations – monocultures with less biodiversity than intact rainforest. </p>
<p>Lechner is impressed with eight principles set out for Nusantara’s development, including on carbon neutrality and circular economy approaches. “If it all looks like it’s looking like on paper, there’s potential for this city to be this shining example for southeast Asia of what green and sustainable development should look like,” he says. </p>
<p>But he’s also concerned about what might happen on Borneo outside Nusantara’s footprint. “What happens to all the development which this city encourages outside of the city boundaries? Is this going to be developed sustainably?” Lechner says if more roads are built to connect Nusantara to other parts of Borneo, this could produce a “fish-bone effect” with small roads leading off into the forest, which could have a “whole raft of cascading spillover effects on the environment and especially on diversity”.</p>
<p>Listen to the full episode to hear more about the challenges facing Jakarta and the plans – and politics – behind Nusantara. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-not-to-build-a-capital-what-indonesia-can-learn-from-other-master-planned-cities-mistakes-175318">How not to build a capital: what Indonesia can learn from other master-planned cities' mistakes</a>
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<p>This episode of The Conversation Weekly was produced by Mend Mariwany and Gemma Ware, with sound design by Eloise Stevens. Our theme music is by Neeta Sarl. You can find us on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/TC_Audio">@TC_Audio</a>, on Instagram at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/?hl=en">theconversationdotcom</a> or <a href="mailto:podcast@theconversation.com">via email</a>. You can also sign up to The Conversation’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/newsletter?utm_campaign=PodcastTCWeekly&utm_content=newsletter&utm_source=podcast">free daily email here</a>.</p>
<p>Newsclips in this episode are from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0W6DiFps9U">CNA</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHQnz1UuYOM">News</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aHJJUA3P-s">Aljazeera</a> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP6JlmI4eik">English</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aHJJUA3P-s">France24 </a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sJUIWCfwYo">The Jakarta Post</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHA35syvg7I">Media dan Informasi Sekretariat Presiden</a>.
You can watch a video showing a digital rendering of the presidential palace, designed by the artist Nyoman Nuarta, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CYX1HzYFgCE/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=">here</a>. </p>
<p>You can listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our <a href="https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/60087127b9687759d637bade">RSS feed</a>, or find out how else to <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-listen-to-the-conversations-podcasts-154131">listen here</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/181134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eka Permanasari has received funding from the Nelson Institute for Diplomacy and International Affairs Research Grant, Drake University, the Humboldt Research Linkage Program and the Indonesian Ministry of Research and Technology.
Hendricus Andy Simarmata is president of the Indonesian Association of Urban and Regional Planners. He is a co-founder of NUA Advisory, a small planning firm. He is a member of the scientific committee of ISOCARP, a non-profit professional organization; and an urban reader at Thamrin School of Climate Change and Sustainability. He also volunteers on the steering committee of the Urban Land Institute Indonesia, a membership-based non-profit research and education organization. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Lechner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why is Indonesia planning to build a new capital called Nusantara? Listen to The Conversation Weekly podcast.Gemma Ware, Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationDaniel Merino, Assistant Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1570772021-03-17T13:21:49Z2021-03-17T13:21:49ZSea levels are rising fastest in big cities – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389828/original/file-20210316-23-18odtnx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C13%2C4509%2C3361&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jakarta is sinking while sea levels rise.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">dani daniar / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It is well known that climate-induced sea level rise is a major threat. What is less well know is the threat of sinking land. And in many of the most populated coastal areas, the land is sinking even faster than the sea is rising.</p>
<p>Parts of Tokyo for instance sank by 4 metres during the 20th century, with 2 metres or more of sinking reported in <a href="https://www.deltares.nl/app/uploads/2015/09/Sinking-cities.pdf">Shanghai, Bangkok, and New Orleans</a>. This process is known as subsidence. Slow subsidence happens naturally in river deltas, and it can be accelerated by the extraction of groundwater, oil or gas which causes the soil to consolidate and the surface to lose elevation. </p>
<p>Subsidence leads to relative sea level rise (sea level rise plus land sinking). It turns croplands salty, damages buildings, causes widespread flooding and can even mean the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpPJMOp_P3M">loss of entire coastal areas</a>.</p>
<p>Subsidence can threaten flooding in low-lying coastal areas, much more so than rising sea levels, yet scientists are only just realising the global implications of the threat with respect to coastal cities. </p>
<p>In fact, while the average coastal area experiences relative sea level rise of less than 3mm per year, the average coastal resident experiences a rise of around 8mm to 10mm per year. This is because so many people live in deltas and especially cities on deltas that are subsiding. That’s the key finding of <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-00993-z">our new research</a>, where we analysed how fast cities are sinking across the world and compared them with global subsidence data including less densely populated coastlines.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map showing relative sea level rise in 23 coastal regions around the world." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389831/original/file-20210316-19-na980a.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=414&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">When weighted by population, relative sea level rise is worst in south east Asia, followed by south and east Asia, and the southern Mediterranean.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-021-00993-z.pdf?origin=ppub">Nicholls et al</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>Our finding reflects that people often choose to live in river deltas, floodplains and other areas that were already prone to sinking, and in doing so will further enhance subsidence. In particular, subsiding cities contain more than 150 million people in the coastal zone – that’s roughly 20% of people in the world who live by the sea. This means relative sealevel rise will have a more sudden and more severe impact than scientists had originally thought.</p>
<p>Here are a few of the most affected cities:</p>
<h2>Jakarta</h2>
<p>The Indonesian capital <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44636934">Jakarta</a> is home to 10 million people, and is built on low-lying land next to the sea. Groundwater extraction caused the city to sink <a href="https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/106/1/012006/meta">more than three metres</a> from 1947 to 2010 and much of the city is still sinking by <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44636934">10cm or more each year</a>. </p>
<p>Subsidence does not occur evenly, leading to uneven risks that make <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11069-011-9866-9.pdf">urban planning difficult</a>. Buildings are now flooded, cracks are appearing in infrastructure which is being abandoned. </p>
<p>Jakarta has built <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/jakarta-building-giant-sea-wall-to-stop-city-from-sinking/av-49921821">higher sea walls</a> to keep up with the subsidence. But since groundwater pumping continues, this patching-up policy can only last so long before the same problems occur again. And the city needs to keep pumping since groundwater is used for drinking water. Taking water, the very thing that humans need to survive, ultimately puts people at risk from inundation. </p>
<p>The battle against subsidence is <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feart.2020.00005/full">slowly being lost</a>, with the government proposing in 2019 to move the capital to a purpose-built city on the island of Borneo more than 1,000km away, with subsidence being <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/why-is-indonesia-moving-its-capital-city-everything-you-need-to-know">one of many reasons</a>.</p>
<h2>Shanghai</h2>
<p>Developing rapidly in the past few decades, and now with a population of 26 million, Shanghai is another sinker. The city has maximum subsidence rates of <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-012-0468-7">around 2.5cm a year</a>. Again this is mostly caused by lowering groundwater levels, in this case thanks to <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s11069-012-0220-7.pdf">drainage to construct skyscrapers, metro lines and roads</a> (for instance Metro Line 1, built in the 1990s, caused rapid subsidence).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Body of water in front of lots of skyscrapers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389853/original/file-20210316-24-18bgv8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shanghai is found where the river Yangtze meets the sea.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John_T / shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>If no additional protection is built, by 2100 this rate of subsidence and sea level rise mean that a storm surge could flood around 15% of the city.</p>
<h2>New Orleans</h2>
<p>In <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/02/how-humans-sank-new-orleans/552323/">New Orleans</a>, centuries of embankments and ditches had effectively drained the city and sunk it, leaving about half of it below sea level. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Map of New Orleans with shaded areas below sea level." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/389840/original/file-20210316-15-le51st.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Much of New Orleans is below sea level (red) and relies on sea walls to stay dry.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.datacenterresearch.org/maps/reference-maps/#gallery-5">The Data Center, New Orleans</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When Hurricane Katrina breached the levees in 2005, the city did not stand a chance. The hurricane caused <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/103/40/14653.short">at least US$40 billion (£29 billion) in damage</a> and particularly took its toll on the city’s <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0021934706296188">African American community</a>. More than <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/103/40/14653.short">1,570 people</a> died across the state of Louisiana.</p>
<p>If the city had not subsided, damage would have been greatly reduced and lives would have been saved. Decisions that were made many decades or more ago set the path for the disasters that are seen today, and what we will see in the future.</p>
<h2>There are no simple solutions</h2>
<p>So what can be done? Building a <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/4/619">sea wall or dike</a> is one immediate solution. This of course stops the water coming in, but remember that the sea wall is sinking too, so it has to be extra large in order to be effective in the long-term. In urban areas, engineers cannot raise ground easily: that can take decades as buildings and infrastructure are renewed. There is no simple solution, and large-scale urban subsidence is largely irreversible. </p>
<p>Some cities have found “solutions”. Tokyo for instance managed to stop subsidence from about 1960 onwards thanks to <a href="https://www.iges.or.jp/en/publication_documents/pub/peer/en/1208/IRES_Vol.6-2_403.pdf">stronger regulations on water pumping</a>, but it cannot get rid of the overall risk as parts of city are below sea level and depend on dikes and pumps to be habitable. Indonesia’s bold proposal to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/why-is-indonesia-moving-its-capital-city-everything-you-need-to-know">move its capital city</a> may be the ultimate solution.</p>
<p>Increased urbanisation especially in deltas areas and the demand for freshwater means subsidence will remain a pressing issue in the coming decades. Dealing with subsidence is complementary to dealing with climate-induced sea level rise and both need to be addressed. A combination of rising seas and sinking lands will increasingly leave coastal cities at risk.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157077/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Brown received funding from European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme project: Responses to coastal climate change: Innovative Strategies for high End Scenarios – Adaptation and Mitigation (RISES-AM), grant agreement number 603396.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert James Nicholls received funding from the Deltas, Vulnerability and Climate Change: Migration and Adaptation
project (International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada, 107642) under the Collaborative Adaptation Research Initiative in Africa and Asia programme with financial support from the UK Government’s Department for International
Development, the IDRC, Canada, from European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme project: Responses to coastal climate change: Innovative Strategies for high End Scenarios – Adaptation and Mitigation (RISES-AM), grant agreement number 603396 and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement number 869304,PROTECT Project.</span></em></p>Sinking land plus rising seas are putting hundreds of millions of people at risk.Sally Brown, Scientist, Bournemouth UniversityRobert James Nicholls, Professor of Climate Adaptation, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1466772020-10-01T09:22:19Z2020-10-01T09:22:19ZExisting political tensions intensify during pandemic: a ‘glocal’ observation<p>Tensions <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/04/01/turf-war-undermines-covid-19-fight-indonesia-government-jokowi-anies.html">have been rising</a> between the Indonesian central government and the Jakarta administration over differences in dealing with the pandemic, leading to confusion and concerns about scattered strategies in mitigating the crisis.</p>
<p>In September, when <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/main-hospitals-in-jakarta-report-full-capacity-amid-covid-19-surge-government-to-use-3">hospitals in the country’s capital were nearly full</a>, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan made a critical and justified decision to reactivate the lockdown policy - known locally as large-scale social restriction, or PSBB. </p>
<p>Anies <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/09/13/central-government-supports-return-to-full-psbb-anies-says.html">claimed</a> the central government fully supported his decision.</p>
<p>The next day, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, said he was concerned Anies’ decision to limit public mobility and business operations in the capital could <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/09/11/jakartas-partial-lockdown-plan-requires-caution-calculation-jokowi.html">worsen the economic downturn</a>.</p>
<p>In saying this, Jokowi contradicted his previous statement that <a href="https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2020/09/07/10514071/jokowi-ingatkan-bahaya-jika-dahulukan-ekonomi-ketimbang-kesehatan">putting the economy before health was dangerous</a>. </p>
<p>Why do jurisdiction tensions - in this Indonesian case, between the president and Jakarta governor - happen in such a crisis? </p>
<p>We argue that existing political tensions (either latent or open) are often intensified during crises and disasters. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-religions-and-religious-leaders-can-help-to-combat-the-covid-19-pandemic-indonesias-experience-140342">How religions and religious leaders can help to combat the COVID-19 pandemic: Indonesia's experience</a>
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<h2>Worsening gaps</h2>
<p>Anies – Jokowi’s former education minister turned <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/04/01/turf-war-undermines-covid-19-fight-indonesia-government-jokowi-anies.html">political opponent</a> – is a <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/02/23/anies-strongest-candidate-for-president-among-regional-heads-survey-says.html">potential candidate</a> for the 2024 presidential election.</p>
<p>The pandemic can intensify prior <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/06/25/republicans-democrats-move-even-further-apart-in-coronavirus-concerns/">political divides</a>. The amplifying of existing relational gaps between jurisdictions sometimes reveals deeper layers of conflict.</p>
<p>Political economic variables, such as <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1868103420935561">rent-seeking and power interests</a>, might explain the tension between central and local governments. </p>
<p>However, we argue that a genuine conflict can also arise based on a clash of crisis management imperatives. Each leader at a different level of jurisdiction understands the crisis and responds differently according to their own biases. </p>
<p>At least three types of biases can be observed during this pandemic: border bias, projection bias, and normalcy bias.</p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0956797610385950#:%7E:text=The%20border%20bias%20occurs%20because,can%20keep%20disasters%20at%20bay.">Border bias</a> is an illusion that administrative boundaries can physically limit the spread of disasters. </p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315073613/chapters/10.4324/9781315073613-14">territorialism</a> approach is often inadequate when facing large-scale catastrophes and crises that are trans-boundary in nature. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cmu.edu/dietrich/sds/docs/loewenstein/projectionbias.pdf">Projection bias</a> prompts leaders to project their current mindsets and assumptions into an uncertain future. </p>
<p>For example, seeking to leave an economic legacy in his last term, Jokowi has become indecisive throughout the pandemic. He is reluctant to put “<a href="https://ris.cdu.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/34682849/New_Normal_Perubahan_Sosial_Ekonomi_dan_Politik_Akibat_Covid_19.pdf">human first, economy second</a>”.</p>
<p>Public leaders in disaster and crisis settings often adopt <a href="http://www.asiascot.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Mckinseys-Leadership-in-a-crisis-Responding-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak-and-future-challenges-v3.pdf">normalcy bias</a> - a habit of underestimating the probability of disruptions. They tend to accept interpretations that favour their interests and biases.</p>
<p>The interplay of the above biases compromises crisis-management decision-making during COVID-19. </p>
<p>Existing political divides are amplified during disasters when public leaders from different parties at different jurisdictions get involved.</p>
<p>In the United States, a similar conflict exists between President Donald Trump (a Republican politician) and New York State Governor Andrew M. Cuomo (a Democrat) over the issue of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/28/donald-trump-virginia-usns-comfort-travel">quarantine</a>.</p>
<p>In Australia, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews (of the Labor Party) <a href="https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/coronavirus-australia-daniel-andrews-hits-back-at-scott-morrisons-attack/news-story/1af2ed6f5d514fad3fcfe99ffff85742">adopted a strict lockdown</a> policy. This went against the policies of Prime Minister Scott Morrison (of the Liberal Party) who favours “<a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/contact-tracing-key-to-speedy-recovery-pm-tells-victoria-20200907-p55szb">re-opening the economy faster by improving COVID-19 contact tracing</a>”. </p>
<p>A debate about which level of government was responsible for the high death toll at aged-care facilities locked the Australian federal and Victorian state governments into <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/aged-care-crisis-lays-bare-political-divide-20200728-p55gbw.html">a feud</a>. In Australia, the pandemic also <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/aug/13/a-nation-divided-how-covid-border-restrictions-have-intensified-australian-state-rivalries">induces state rivalries and parochialism</a>. </p>
<p>Conflicts like these occur around the world, from <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-923X.12909">Europe</a> to <a href="https://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/28650/across-latin-america-coronavirus-responses-are-a-new-dividing-line">Latin America</a>, with variations in complexity and intensity.</p>
<p>In Indonesia, we can also see such tension between lower-level governments.</p>
<p>In the province of East Nusa Tenggara, the municipal administration of Kupang recently decided to restrict movements out of concern that it didn’t have enough capacity to handle an increasing number of COVID-19 cases.</p>
<p>Within hours, the provincial administration <a href="https://timexkupang.com/2020/09/25/sayangkan-edaran-pemprov-ntt-dprd-minta-pemkot-tegas/">overruled</a> the policy. It allowed mass gathering and parties as long as they complied with COVID-19 protocols, arguing that economic activities have to continue.</p>
<p>In East Java, the provincial administration and the municipal administration of the province’s capital city, Surabaya, <a href="https://tirto.id/perseteruan-risma-dan-khofifah-di-zona-merah-corona-fF6Z">disagree</a> on COVID-19 management issues such as allocation of mobile test labs, lockdown timeframe, hospital admission and transparency about new clusters. </p>
<p>Leaders of these administrations come from different political parties. While they are part of the same national coalition, they have <a href="https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20200728070745-32-529576/adu-kuat-pengaruh-khofifah-vs-risma-di-pilkada-surabaya-2020">different interests in the upcoming local election</a>.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-political-will-is-important-to-reduce-risks-of-disaster-136282">Why political will is important to reduce risks of disaster</a>
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<h2>What is the public to do</h2>
<p>There is no “one size fits all approach” to contain virus transmission. Even so, we can attribute a certain level of <a href="https://time.com/5851633/best-global-responses-covid-19/">success</a> to measures such as <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0931-9">safe distancing, high testing rates, adequate contact tracing and quarantine</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-52703265">listening to experts</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52628283">strategic border controls</a>.</p>
<p>Whatever political parties or ideologies are in power, the public must pressure their governments to adopt those measures.</p>
<p>The public must scrutinise decisions made by any democratically elected government. </p>
<p>How a policy is made (whether it is scientifically based) and its objectives (to contain, to suppress, or to “live with” the virus) are more important than who made it and which parties they are from. </p>
<p>Some encouraging evidence has shown that at the community level this approach works. </p>
<p>Villagers of <a href="http://www.panggungharjo.desa.id/">Panggungharjo</a> in Bantul, Yogyakarta, established a collaborative response model where they developed their own measures to protect themselves from the pandemic. </p>
<p>These include monitoring movements of people in and out of the village and <a href="https://digitalpress.ugm.ac.id/book/257">allocating rooms for village-level quarantine</a>. They also encouraged community trading via an <a href="https://pasardesa.id/about/">e-commerce platform</a>. </p>
<p>The challenge is to upscale such collective consciousness and solidarity to the municipal, provincial and higher levels.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Ignatius Raditya Nugraha contributed to the publication of this article.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146677/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Para penulis tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi di luar afiliasi akademis yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>A pandemic can amplify friction and tension between jurisdictions – especially when there are political differences and existing conflict.Jonatan A Lassa, Senior Lecturer, Humanitarian Emergency and Disaster Management, College of Indigenous Futures, Arts and Society, Charles Darwin UniversityErmi Ndoen, Peneliti Kesehatan Masyarakat, Institute of Resource Governance and Social Change (IRGSC) KupangRudi Rohi, Peneliti, Institute of Resource Governance and Social Change (IRGSC) KupangVictoria Fanggidae, PhD candidate, School of Social and Political Science, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1241762019-10-08T02:53:44Z2019-10-08T02:53:44Z‘Stop playing politics’: refugees stuck in Indonesia rally against UNHCR for chronic waiting<p>One evening last month, the young man from Afghanistan, of Hazara ethnicity, arrived in Jakarta. His people-smuggler dropped him at the UNHCR entrance reserved for refugees, where he was told to wait.</p>
<p>The next day, mid-morning, he was still outside waiting to speak to someone. He was too afraid to give me his name or even his age, but he appeared to be in his early 20s. </p>
<p>He had been fleeing for 20 days, ten days hiding in wait in Kabul, then another ten days in transit through three countries. His choice to come to Indonesia was based solely on escaping immediately. </p>
<p>Through a translator he said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I needed to get out quick. I just wanted to come as soon as possible so I came through an agent. My agent brought me here, I have no shelter so I am just waiting for the UNHCR for information.</p>
</blockquote>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/refugee-run-school-in-indonesia-a-model-for-governments-to-emulate-55378">Refugee-run school in Indonesia a model for governments to emulate</a>
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<p>I’ve been working with a refugee-run <a href="https://cisarualearning.com">school</a> in Indonesia for the past year. There, refugees aren’t allowed access to education or work, and asylum seekers can be arrested at the whim of authorities. This, compounded with chronic waiting, has led to a straining relationship with the UNHCR, the key institution in their lives.</p>
<p>Only 509 of 14,016 people (3.5%) <a href="https://rsq.unhcr.org/en/#1DPd">were resettled</a> in Indonesia last year. Of those , only 84 came to Australia. And so far this year, the number of people resettled from Indonesia to Australia is just <a href="https://rsq.unhcr.org/en/#0tRl">eight</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1178676839234985985"}"></div></p>
<p>Figures like these explain why, for many months now, the UNHCR office in Jakarta has been the subject of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/13/its-impossible-to-do-anything-indonesias-refugees-in-limbo-as-money-runs-out">ongoing protests</a> made up of street protests outside the building in the city centre and civil disobedience in the upscale suburb of Kalideres. Refugees and asylum seekers have refused to vacate a disused military building temporarily allocated to them.</p>
<h2>Like false advertising</h2>
<p>Refugees argue the very existence of the UNHCR Jakarta office is a kind of false advertising.</p>
<p>Twenty-four-year-old Ali Jawad Haidari has been in Indonesia for over seven years. He said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you cannot support refugees you should close your office. You should say we cannot support refugees, announce in the media we cannot do anything.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>At Kalideres, the broken trust is visceral. People question the staff’s willingness to prosecute cases, and why they visited Kalideres with security guards when there was never a hint of violence in the months of protest (and for that matter, why they were not allowed to enter the main UNHCR building through the front door). </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1180128352251703297"}"></div></p>
<p>They also questioned the ethics of the UNHCR, when the institution offered a one-off payment of roughly a month’s living expenses to the refugees in exchange for leaving the Kalideres site. The refugees initially thought this would be the beginning of ongoing UNHCR support.</p>
<p>And they questioned why the agency supposed to protect them would turn off their electricity and water.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/over-a-month-on-in-post-election-australia-no-mercy-for-refugees-in-indonesia-118594">Over a month on in post-election Australia: No mercy for refugees in Indonesia</a>
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<hr>
<p>In fact, “The UNHCR is making me sick” is a refrain I heard multiple times during interviews. </p>
<p>Hassan Ramazan, a spokesperson for the Hazara refugees at Kalideres, said the sit-in protests exist because their community and the relatives who support them by sending cash, are at breaking point. He said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are people here since 2009, 10, 11, 12, 13, their supporters can not support them any more.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>The refugees who wait</h2>
<p>Ramazan also points to the seeming arbitrariness of resettlement. Interview wait times to determine refugee status vary, with some who arrived more recently resettled than those who’ve been waiting for years.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1178681740782530561"}"></div></p>
<p>What’s more, single men believe they are treated with suspicion in western countries. Twenty-eight-year-old Muhammad Hanif is one of those single men, who received his refugee registration in 2013. He said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Lots of singles have been here seven or eight years, we also pray for families to be resettled, but also for us, it should be fair.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And Haidari points out people may have arrived alone but are still family members – brothers, sons, fathers. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>My friend arrived alone and is still waiting. Recently his 13-year-old son was injured in a bomb blast in Afghanistan, spent two months in hospital, and still the UNHCR said they can’t do anything. </p>
<p>My friend when he came here his son was six, now he’s 13-years-old and injured.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Work rights could alleviate chronic waiting</h2>
<p>Waiting is a <a href="http://www.inderscience.com/storage/f101138715296412.pdf">contemporary strategy</a> of migration management. </p>
<p>But chronic waiting must be taken into account in refugee policy, as it causes and prolongs psycho-social damage and changes the nature of societal and institutional relationships.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-right-to-work-can-empower-refugees-in-malaysia-119666">The right to work can empower refugees in Malaysia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For the majority of refugees, chronic waiting is unlikely to result in effective protection unless a refugee’s country of origin becomes safe to return to. This is unlikely in the foreseeable future for the major refugee producing countries. </p>
<p>Even in countries with major refugee populations, their <a href="https://www.rescue.org/press-release/global-business-leaders-sustainable-development-goals-will-not-be-achieved-if-refugees">plight is mostly ignored</a>. </p>
<p>But not always. In Malaysia – where the refugee population is ten times that of Indonesia and work has been informally accessed for years – there are <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-right-to-work-can-empower-refugees-in-malaysia-119666">moves to make work legal</a> for refugees. </p>
<p>Work could help alleviate economic pressures and restore agency and dignity lost in waiting. But the refugees are keenly aware of Indonesia’s local poverty and insecure work conditions. And because Indonesia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, it is not obliged to look after refugees. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295734/original/file-20191007-121101-awwwd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C23%2C2588%2C1916&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295734/original/file-20191007-121101-awwwd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295734/original/file-20191007-121101-awwwd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295734/original/file-20191007-121101-awwwd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295734/original/file-20191007-121101-awwwd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295734/original/file-20191007-121101-awwwd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295734/original/file-20191007-121101-awwwd6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Masooma, her two-year-old daughter Zahra and her husband Ali are one of the families protesting in Kalideres.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nevertheless, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/09/refugees-families-indonesia-left-limbo-190915072802665.html">ways for refugees to sustain themselves</a> are supposedly being discussed in Indonesia. </p>
<p>For Haidari, a martial arts champion, work would solve many of his problems. But the authorities have stopped him from competing. He said: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>If I could just fight I would never knock on the UNHCR door again.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Refugee spokesperson Ramazan doesn’t see work rights as the ultimate solution, but he does ask what sort of generation is being created. They’re living on the streets, without access to education or the example of seeing their parents work.</p>
<p>Thirty-seven-year-old Masooma, who is in the Kalideres complex with her husband and two-year-old daughter, has another, pointed, question. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>They say the first priority is for people with critical problems, who are sick, and that’s the reason resettlement is slow. </p>
<p>Since they don’t give us support and assistance of course we will get sick, and then what should we do with that process? What will we do if we get sick and then go to another country?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Essentially, there is no point in breaking people, then helping them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124176/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chrisanthi Giotis volunteers and researches at the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre, Indonesia. She is a member of the ALP. </span></em></p>Some refugees have been waiting to be resettled for almost a decade, and their broken trust is visceral.Chrisanthi Giotis, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Communication, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1057222019-09-25T22:14:57Z2019-09-25T22:14:57ZAir pollution in global megacities linked to children’s cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s and death<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293878/original/file-20190924-51434-168bxr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C89%2C3976%2C2574&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Severe air pollution can speed up neurodegeneration when the brain is at the peak of its development — during childhood. Pictured here, a child in Beijing.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In megacities across the world, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-016-0032-z">Mexico City, Jakarta, New Delhi, Beijing, Los Angeles, Paris and London</a>, humans are polluting air at a rate that <a href="https://www.who.int/airpollution/en/">Earth can no longer sustain</a>. </p>
<p>Most human-made air pollution is like <a href="http://www.clinsci.org/content/115/6/175.figures-only">dust, as tiny as the diameter of hair</a> (particulate matter) or even smaller (ultrafine particulate matter). The link to respiratory conditions such as pneumonia, bronchitis and asthma is well known. Almost one million children die from pneumonia each year, <a href="https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Clear_the_Air_for_Children_Executive_summary_ENG.pdf">more than half of which are directly related to air pollution</a>. </p>
<p>Being so small, particulate matter can also travel <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/113/39/10797">from our lungs into the blood and circulate into the brain</a>. Once there, it can promote brain inflammation, which contributes to cell loss within the central nervous system, and likely to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299999970_How_Air_Pollution_Alters_Brain_Development_The_Role_of_Neuroinflammation">neurodegeneration, cognitive deficits and increased risk for dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease</a>.</p>
<p>While mild neurogeneration is a natural aspect of aging, it can be worsened and quickened by neuroinflammation from severe air pollution. Even worse, <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00613/full">severe air pollution can speed up neurodegeneration when the brain is at the peak of its development</a> — during childhood. </p>
<p>That’s right — millions of children around the world currently breathe air that may put them at risk of premature cognitive decline, and neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.</p>
<p>This is the story of how we continue to poison our children’s brains and cut their lives short.</p>
<h2>Unexplained deaths of children</h2>
<p>In the late 1990s, neuropathologist and pediatrician <a href="https://apps.umt.edu/directory/details/d5e922615467a007d31cf08f61451018">Lilian Calderón-Garcidueñas</a>, reported a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ana_Calderon6/publication/51366231_Brain_Inflammation_and_Alzheimer%27s-Like_Pathology_in_Individuals_Exposed_to_Severe_Air_Pollution/links/0c9605296dad95616f000000.pdf">connection between early signs of neurodegeneration and air pollution</a> by examining brain tissues in adults, children and dogs after unexplained sudden “accidental” deaths. </p>
<p>Those brains had only one thing in common — they were from residents of Mexico City, one of the most polluted megacities in the world. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293880/original/file-20190924-51438-vlnpul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293880/original/file-20190924-51438-vlnpul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293880/original/file-20190924-51438-vlnpul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293880/original/file-20190924-51438-vlnpul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293880/original/file-20190924-51438-vlnpul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293880/original/file-20190924-51438-vlnpul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293880/original/file-20190924-51438-vlnpul.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Around 300 million children live in areas, such as Mexico City, where outdoor air pollution exceeds international guidelines by at least six times.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
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<p>Further study showed what became a frequent grim picture in scientific reports. Microscopic images of unhealthy brain slices in diseased animals and humans showed particulate matter and ultrafine particulate matter as tiny dark spots surrounded by inflamed tissue. </p>
<p>Around the inflamed spots you can sometimes see strips that resemble scars but other times you can see pinkish stems. These are the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Angelica_Gonzalez-Maciel/publication/5503901_Long-term_Air_Pollution_Exposure_Is_Associated_with_Neuroinflammation_an_Altered_Innate_Immune_Response_Disruption_of_the_Blood-Brain_Barrier_Ultrafine_Particulate_Deposition_and_Accumulation_of_Amylo/links/54230f580cf290c9e3ae263b.pdf">amyloid plaques frequently found after death in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease</a>.</p>
<p>I joined Lilian’s team as an <a href="https://carleton.ca/neuroscience/people/amedeo-dangiulli/">expert in cognitive developmental neuroscience and neuroimaging</a>. We looked for signs of premature cognitive decline in living residents, using behavioural tests and taking various types of images of target brain regions. </p>
<h2>Substantial cognitive decline in kids’ brains</h2>
<p>We found that children from Mexico City had <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.ant.2018.10.008">substantial cognitive decline</a> as compared to population norms, and as compared to other children of similar age, sex and family and neighbourhood backgrounds who lived in less polluted areas. </p>
<p>We were also able to pinpoint unusual cognitive deficits to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/51750512_Exposure_to_severe_urban_air_pollution_influences_cognitive_outcomes_brain_volume_and_systemic_inflammation_in_clinically_healthy_children">key developing areas of the brain</a>: the prefrontal, temporal and parietal lobes of the cortex. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2011.03.007">Atypical cognition was also found in the auditory brain stem</a>, possibly relating to speech and language developmental deficits. Neuroimages in children were consistent with <a href="https://content.iospress.com/articles/journal-of-alzheimers-disease/jad120610">most serious damage being in the white matter</a> — the parts of the brain providing the connections for electrical communication. In many cases we were able to show that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21955814">in those Mexico City children, neuroinflammation was much worse than normal</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293881/original/file-20190924-51434-11h40az.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/293881/original/file-20190924-51434-11h40az.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293881/original/file-20190924-51434-11h40az.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293881/original/file-20190924-51434-11h40az.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=451&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293881/original/file-20190924-51434-11h40az.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293881/original/file-20190924-51434-11h40az.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/293881/original/file-20190924-51434-11h40az.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Polluted megacities include those such as Paris, London and Los Angeles. Here, traffic is shown in the city of London, UK.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00613">reports of similar findings from other megacities and from other researchers</a> show a considerable agreement: the brains of millions of children are being damaged by air pollution and protecting them should be of pressing importance for public health.</p>
<h2>Public health crisis requiring immediate action</h2>
<p>The good news: It is still possible to clear the air of cities, both indoors and outdoors, and <a href="https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Clear_the_Air_for_Children_Executive_summary_ENG.pdf">minimize children’s exposure</a>. </p>
<p>However, our attitudes must now <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2018.00095">shift from caution and waiting to immediate action</a>. We need to commit to hard choices that may go against the convenience and ease of modern life we are accustomed to. For example, relying on cars and other combustion-based technologies. </p>
<p>If things are to change, the <a href="https://books.google.ca/books?id=uFTiBwAAQBAJ&vq=Colleen+Moore+air+pollution&dq=Colleen+Moore+air+pollution&source=gbs_navlinks_s">responsibility lies with the individual “me” and “you,” as well as with our collective society and institutions</a>. We will never make it if one side of this equation continues to download responsibility to the other.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)30505-6">Alzheimer’s disease and other most hideous neurodegenerative diseases (dementias) are linked with all levels of air pollution </a>, in people of all ages. Such diseases are <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death">among the top 10 mass killers globally</a> and there is still no cure for them.</p>
<p>The science is in. Children are now rising up globally <a href="https://qz.com/1714484/greta-thunberg-files-climate-lawsuit-after-passionate-un-speech/">to defend their rights to a healthy life, on the global stage</a>. We must respond, with concrete changes to our habits.</p>
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<p>[ <em>Like what you’ve read? Want more?</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=likethis">Sign up for The Conversation’s daily newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105722/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Amedeo D'Angiulli has received funding from UNICEF, Carleton University's Faculty of Science & International Research Seed Grants, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, The Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada & the International Development Research Centre, UNESCO International Bureau of Education, and the International Brain Research Organization.</span></em></p>Investigation of the brains of children and young adults who died suddenly in Mexico City revealed amyloid plaques similar to those found in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.Amedeo D'Angiulli, Professor of Developmental Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, Carleton UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1231962019-09-17T08:12:50Z2019-09-17T08:12:50ZIndonesia ‘discards’ its capital Jakarta for a new one, but we can’t just dispose of cities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/292570/original/file-20190916-19076-qbq17s.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C1%2C1000%2C323&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jakarta is among the 'megacities' with a population of more than 10 million people.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indonesia’s government is advancing <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/why-is-indonesia-moving-its-capital-city-everything-you-need-to-know">plans to relocate the country’s capital more than 1,000 kilometres away, from Jakarta on densely populated Java island to Borneo island</a>.</p>
<p>At a time when modern consumer societies are awash in disposable products, the relocation plan seems to exemplify global society’s tendency to throw things away once they can no longer be used. In other words, Jakarta is a “disposable city”.</p>
<p>Indonesia is not alone. For various reasons, including environmental challenges, a number of countries have “disposed” of their old capitals in favour of new ones. </p>
<p>In 1960, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/apr21/brazil-gets-new-capital/">Brazil </a> moved its capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia. In 1991, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/68c28016-bb16-11e3-948c-00144feabdc0">Nigeria</a> named Abuja as its new capital, replacing Lagos. </p>
<p>Since 2015, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/egypt-builds-new-capital-city-replace-cairo-n893606">Egypt</a> has been constructing a different site for its government, about 40 kilometres from Cairo. There are also discussions in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/oct/02/theres-no-other-option-the-radical-plan-to-move-mexicos-government">Mexico</a> about transferring some government agencies from the capital to other cities.</p>
<p>These capital relocation plans serve as a warning about urban development, revealing environmental problems associated with rapid urbanisation in industrialising countries.</p>
<h2>Shifting capitals but not urban complications</h2>
<p>The situation with Jakarta is only the latest case of a country shifting its capital from an unmanageable urban context.</p>
<p>What does Indonesia have in common with Brazil, Nigeria and Egypt? </p>
<p>In each country, leaders faced limits in the urban environment. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.org/thisday/apr21/brazil-gets-new-capital/">Rio de Janeiro</a> was hamstrung by a city design in which government buildings were spread out and where traffic was unbearable. Lagos suffered from unplanned growth and congestion. Cairo, too, endures inadequate infrastructure, crowding and traffic gridlock.</p>
<p>As for Jakarta, its situation is similar to these other cities, since it suffers from a lack of urban planning and public infrastructure. It is “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/indonesia-to-move-capital-from-jakarta-to-east-kalimantan/2019/08/26/e8ae4f8c-c7d9-11e9-9615-8f1a32962e04_story.html?noredirect=on">overcrowded, sinking and polluted</a>”. <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2011/11/03/jakarta-urban-challenges-in-a-changing-climate">Its problems range from urban sprawl, to major flooding, to land subsidence</a>.</p>
<p>The city is said to have the worst traffic jams in the world, and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/07/11/the-50-most-densely-populated-cities-in-the-world/39664259/">the poorest air quality in Southeast Asia</a>. </p>
<p>Heavy reliance on passenger vehicles for transport and failures in urban planning almost appear as if they arise from a “disposable” short-term mindset. </p>
<p>Environmental experts have voiced their concern about Indonesia’s capital relocation plan as it will not solve problems in Jakarta and only create other ones in the new capital.</p>
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Baca juga:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/moving-indonesias-capital-city-wont-fix-jakartas-problems-and-will-increase-fire-risk-in-borneo-122639">Moving Indonesia's capital city won't fix Jakarta's problems and will increase fire risk in Borneo</a>
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<h2>A throw-away society</h2>
<p>The modern era is driven by consumerism, encapsulated by the term “<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1162/1088198054084671">throwaway society</a>”.</p>
<p>To make room for new purchases, this system of continual replacement relies on planned or cultural obsolescence of products, and disposal after short-term use. </p>
<p>This is an intentional part of the design. We have single-use cameras, cheap Ikea furniture, and in <a href="https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2018/03/15/why-japanese-houses-have-such-limited-lifespans">Japan</a> it is a custom that houses should be replaced after two decades.</p>
<p>Habits developed at an individual level, however, do not translate to entire cities, as these are not easily replaced. </p>
<p>Yet they are often constructed as if that is the case. Cities are designed with a lack of urban planning and built with cheap materials. They are heavily reliant on unsustainable nonrenewable energy sources and private transportation, instead of mass-transit infrastructure. And due to poor planning, many cities can’t handle population growth. </p>
<p>While a single-use item may serve us for one meal or a few days, at a much larger scale a “disposable” city would be liveable for years or decades, rather than a century or more.</p>
<h2>The need for sustainable cities</h2>
<p>Cities represent our present and future. If humans are to live sustainably, they must figure out how to do so within urban areas. Nearly <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html">55%</a> of the world population now resides there. The figure will increase to <a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html">68%</a> by mid-century. As the global population rises to <a href="https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2019_Highlights.pdf">9.7 billion</a> in 2050, urban residents will increase from 4.2 billion to 6.6 billion, a <a href="https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2019_Highlights.pdf">57%</a> increase. </p>
<p>Jakarta itself is representative of the largest urban agglomerations with a population of more than 10 million people, called “megacities”. There are projected to be 39 megacities by 2030, accounting for nearly <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/10/mapping-the-world-s-new-megacities-in-2030/">10%</a> of the global population. </p>
<p>The continued <a href="https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2019_Highlights.pdf">rapid urban population growth presents challenges for “sustainable development”</a>. </p>
<p>Sustainable development is defined as “<a href="https://www.iisd.org/topic/sustainable-development">development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs</a>”. The United Nations (UN) points out that “<a href="https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html">sustainable development depends increasingly on the successful management of urban growth</a>”. One of the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals focuses on <a href="https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-11-sustainable-cities-and-communities.html">sustainable cities</a>. </p>
<p>Research <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/961514_Koch%20et%20al._How%20to%20achieve%20Urban%20Sustainability%20Transformations%20(UST)%20in%20real%20life%20politics.pdf">suggests</a> “urban sustainability transformations” are necessary to make existing cities viable for the long term. The <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2018/12/5-cities-show-what-urban-transformation-really-looks">transformations</a>, such as inclusive transportation and more efficient systems of waste collection, are aimed at greater resource efficiency, quality of life, and resilience.</p>
<h2>Solutions offer a way forward</h2>
<p>Experts believe “<a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2010/11/09/jakartas-urban-nightmare/">Jakarta’s ecological woes are largely man-made</a>”, but this means humans can solve these problems too. </p>
<p>The same goes for other capitals. Managing them requires thoughtful planning for their longer-term operations.</p>
<p>This includes having political commitment and good decision-making in adopting sustainable designs. </p>
<p>The designs may involve “<a href="https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-11-sustainable-cities-and-communities.html">investment in public transport, creating green public spaces, and improving urban planning and management in participatory and inclusive ways</a>”.</p>
<p>Other solutions include “<a href="http://mirror.unhabitat.org/content.asp?typeid=19&catid=555&cid=5607">strategic spatial planning</a>”. The planning will ensure “<a href="http://mirror.unhabitat.org/content.asp?typeid=19&catid=555&cid=5607">infrastructure development to promote more compact forms of urban expansion with focuses on accessibility and public transport</a>”.</p>
<p>For Indonesia, starting anew is an appealing prospect, but complications do not necessarily require giving up on a city.</p>
<p>In the end, we need to heed the warning signs of unsustainable cities. </p>
<p>The situation in Jakarta did not arise suddenly. Discussions about moving the capital have taken place over <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/why-is-indonesia-moving-its-capital-city-everything-you-need-to-know">decades</a>. But, even with ample time, the Indonesian government failed to make necessary policy changes. </p>
<p>Now, shifting the capital of Indonesia and other countries may actually send the wrong message that cities too can be discarded. </p>
<p>The new location in Indonesia is appealing because it is “<a href="https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-08-26/indonesia-new-capital-explained">a resource-rich province of tropical forest</a>”, but not every country has the land and resources to move and rebuild an entire capital. </p>
<p>The “throwaway society” and disposable model must not be applied to urban areas. As the saying goes, “there is no Planet B”. It’s the same for our cities.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123196/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David D. Sussman tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Shifting the capital of Indonesia and other countries may actually send the wrong message that cities too can be discarded.David D. Sussman, Visiting Scholar, Tufts UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1233042019-09-12T20:44:11Z2019-09-12T20:44:11ZThe next battles against tobacco must be fought in the world’s major cities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291825/original/file-20190910-190031-olddso.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=73%2C16%2C5316%2C3473&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, is one of many emerging global metropolises that are struggling to protect residents against tobacco.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Global cities like New York and London were among the first to pioneer <a href="https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2004.058164">effective tobacco control policies</a> — like smoke-free workplaces, public cessation services and higher tobacco taxes. </p>
<p>These life-saving policies were so successful that an international treaty called the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was negotiated in 2003 to promote similar evidence-based policies throughout the world. Until recently, <a href="https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/2008/20081117/en/">many assumed</a> the <a href="https://www.who.int/fctc/signatories_parties/en/">181 countries that ratified the treaty</a> had benefitted from it.</p>
<p>This month we published <a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l2287">new research in the <em>British Medical Journal</em></a> showing that a pre-existing decline in global cigarette consumption was not accelerated by this international tobacco control treaty. </p>
<p>Worse yet, our depressing findings show that while people are smoking less in richer countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, tobacco consumption is rising by over 500 cigarettes per adult in poorer countries like China, Indonesia and Vietnam.</p>
<p>These unexpected results raise two important questions: what could explain these global disparities in tobacco control, and what can be done to address them?</p>
<h2>Tobacco taxes too low</h2>
<p>Global disparities may largely be explained by shifting economic trends and governments’ different capabilities in implementing tobacco control policies. </p>
<p>Rapidly growing metropolises like Beijing, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City have not had the same success in protecting their residents against the dangers of tobacco as the richer early-adopting cities.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291824/original/file-20190910-190044-ex46mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291824/original/file-20190910-190044-ex46mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291824/original/file-20190910-190044-ex46mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291824/original/file-20190910-190044-ex46mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291824/original/file-20190910-190044-ex46mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291824/original/file-20190910-190044-ex46mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291824/original/file-20190910-190044-ex46mr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=423&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jakarta, Indonesia. Tobacco consumption is rising by by over 500 cigarettes per adult in poorer countries like Indonesia and Vietnam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One major reason is that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-017-0955-8">tobacco taxes in these cities are a fraction</a> of what we know they should be and are <a href="https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/assets/global/pdfs/en/Indonesia_tobacco_taxes_report_en.pdf">not rising as quickly as incomes</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, these cities will <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2014-051821">lose billions of dollars</a> in lost productivity and health-care expenditures, and the <a href="https://www.who.int/tobacco/publications/surveillance/rep_mortality_attibutable/en/">number one preventable cause of premature death</a> will grow worse every year for hundreds of millions of people.</p>
<h2>Tax avoidance and smuggling</h2>
<p>Yet these emerging cities are not necessarily themselves to blame. Our research, when combined with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17441692.2016.1273370">past studies on the tobacco industry</a>, provides some of the first quantitative evidence for what economists would call an “equilibrium effect” in the tobacco market — whereby the implementation of tobacco control policies in richer countries incentivized tobacco companies to relocate their lobbying, marketing and promotion activities to poorer countries with far less stringent policies.</p>
<p>In fact, there is a tragic irony to this story: the oligopolies dominating the global tobacco market are all headquartered in the very cities that pioneered the tobacco control policies, and these policies now drive industry operations to emerging cities with far fewer protections against this deadly product.</p>
<p>Phillip Morris in New York. British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco in London. Japan Tobacco in Tokyo. Not only are these publicly traded companies leveraging capital from wealthy investors in these cities to worsen the tobacco epidemic abroad, they are repatriating billions of dollars back into these wealthy cities through <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/30/tobacco-firm-bat-costs-developing-countries-700m-in-tax">systemic tax avoidance</a> and <a href="https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/tobaccocontrol/13/suppl_2/ii104.full.pdf">international smuggling</a> coordinated at the highest levels — all while <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)60312-9">aggressively fighting against effective tobacco control policies</a> around the world.</p>
<h2>One billion expected deaths</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l2287">Our research</a> demonstrates that the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has not yet led to equitable protection against the harms of tobacco for the great cities of the world. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291826/original/file-20190910-190026-72f4sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/291826/original/file-20190910-190026-72f4sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291826/original/file-20190910-190026-72f4sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291826/original/file-20190910-190026-72f4sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291826/original/file-20190910-190026-72f4sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291826/original/file-20190910-190026-72f4sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/291826/original/file-20190910-190026-72f4sm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tobacco taxes in cities like Beijing are not rising as fast as incomes.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By 2044 there will be <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/urbanization">twice as many people living in the world’s cities</a> as in rural areas, meaning we cannot leave any city behind if we have any hope of defeating the global tobacco epidemic.</p>
<p>The next stage of this long war must be fought city by city. Whether that means raising tobacco taxes in Beijing, curtailing industry marketing in Jakarta, requiring plain tobacco packaging in Ho Chi Minh City or taking legal action in New York and London — we all have a role to play in fighting <a href="https://www.who.int/tobacco/mpower/2008/en/">to prevent the one billion deaths</a> that are expected from tobacco in the 21st century.</p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/newsletters?utm_source=TCCA&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=expertise">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get a digest of academic takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123304/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Hoffman declares support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (project 312902) and the Research Council of Norway. He was previously employed by WHO.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathieu JP Poirier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Rapidly growing metropolises like Beijing, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City are struggling to protect residents against tobacco. Life-saving policies in rich countries may be partially to blame.Steven J. Hoffman, Director, Global Strategy Lab and Professor of Global Health, Law, and Political Science, York University, CanadaMathieu JP Poirier, Assistant Professor of Soclal Epidemiology, York University, CanadaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1226392019-09-03T05:31:03Z2019-09-03T05:31:03ZMoving Indonesia’s capital city won’t fix Jakarta’s problems and will increase fire risk in Borneo<p>Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has officially announced plans to relocate the country’s capital from the congested, sinking city of Jakarta to East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.</p>
<p>The hope is that building “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-politics-capital/indonesian-president-unveils-site-of-new-capital-on-borneo-island-idUSKCN1VG0FC">a smart city in the forest</a>” in North Penajam Paser and Kutai Kartanegara regencies will ease <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/nov/21/jakarta-indonesia-30-million-sinking-future">Jakarta’s myriad problems</a>. Home to 10 million people, Jakarta struggles with severe pollution, traffic jams and floods, and parts of it are sinking. </p>
<p>But moving the capital to Borneo, which has large swathes of flammable peatlands, increases the risk of fires, which would wreak devastating environmental damage and release vast amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. </p>
<p>And the move wouldn’t necessarily solve Jakarta’s environmental problems.</p>
<h2>High forest fire risk</h2>
<p>The proposed site of the new capital is not far from the Mahakam Lakes, a beautiful area rich in peatlands and home to the Irrawaddy dolphin (<em>Orcaella brevirostris</em>), an endangered species known locally as <a href="https://www.globalnature.org/en/living-lakes/asia/mahakam-wetland"><em>pesut</em></a>. Peatland fires are the most significant source of the acrid haze that regularly envelop various parts of Indonesia, including this year.</p>
<p>Relocating the capital would mean clearing land to make space for new government buildings, houses and associated infrastructure. The government has <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-politics-capital/indonesian-president-unveils-site-of-new-capital-on-borneo-island-idUSKCN1VG0FC">reportedly set aside 180,000 hectares</a> for construction. </p>
<p>It is not surprising that environmental groups such as <a href="https://www.greenpeace.org/southeastasia/press/2933/2933/">Greenpeace Indonesia are concerned</a> about the impact on the forest and the many species that inhabit it, such the orangutan. Unfortunately, forest clearing is just one of the many environmental impacts, and not even the most significant. </p>
<p>At least <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-politics-capital/indonesian-president-unveils-site-of-new-capital-on-borneo-island-idUSKCN1VG0FC">1.5 million public servants</a> are expected to move to the new capital. That’s on top of the environmental impact of the current population – 900,000 people in Kutai Kartanegara and North Penajam Paser regencies.</p>
<p>A vastly bigger population close to the Mahakam Lakes increases the risk of peatland fires there. Migrant inflows into the new capital would encourage agriculture expansion. And people still often burn land for agriculture expansion in Indonesia, despite a <a href="https://www.hukumonline.com/pusatdata/download/lt544603c2b2a07/node/lt544603c1022d5">ban on the use of fires for land clearing</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10745-005-5156-z">My research</a> and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate3008">that of other colleagues</a> show that fires in Indonesia are linked not just to large- and small-scale agricultural activities, but also other livelihood activities such as hunting and fishing.</p>
<p>People already living in the area will hunt and fish more to sell to city dwellers, who will also visit forest and peatland areas for recreation and to earn a livelihood.</p>
<p>When people hunt and fish during the dry season, they often build campfires and burn vegetation to find fishing ponds. Fires can escape and become wildfires. </p>
<p>The risk of fire in the area is very real. During <a href="https://rainforests.mongabay.com/08indo_fires.htm">the worst El Nino drought on record in Indonesia</a>, which occurred in 1997-98, fires raged throughout the Mahakam area and the rest of East Kalimantan, the worst affected province in the country. </p>
<p>If similar fires were to reoccur – which is more likely than not, given the increasing temperatures due to climate change – the new capital would likely be brought to a standstill for months. Both fire and the resulting haze would put the health and livelihoods of its inhabitants at risk.</p>
<h2>Jakarta’s problems remain</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/27/why-is-indonesia-moving-its-capital-city-everything-you-need-to-know">Allocating US$32.7 billion to the construction of the new capital</a> might even worsen Jakarta’s environmental problems.</p>
<p>Jakarta needs massive infrastructure investment to improve public transport (which reduces congestion and greenhouse gas emissions) and boost sanitation, including linking all houses to potable water. </p>
<p>Many of its inhabitants are forced to rely on water from deep wells, resulting in over-extraction of underground water. That, in turn, <a href="https://harvardpolitics.com/world/jakarta-sinking-how-subsidence-endangers-indonesias-capital/">causes land subsidence</a>. </p>
<p>Without significant regulatory change and investment to stop Jakarta sinking, billions will be lost in damage to existing infrastructure and connected economic activity.</p>
<p>Relocating 1.5 million people out of Jakarta is not going to resolve the city’s subsidence problem, given that Jakarta’s population grows by <a href="http://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/jakarta-population/">about 250,000 people every year</a>. </p>
<p>Before it approves relocation of the capital, the Indonesian parliament should guarantee sufficient resources will be available to address Jakarta’s transport and subsidence problems. And it should ensure any new capital is in a location that’s not going to worsen the region’s fire and haze problem.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122639/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luca Tacconi receives funding from the Australian Center for International Agricultural Research. </span></em></p>The government has reportedly set aside 180,000 hectares of land for construction of a new capital in East Kalimantan.Luca Tacconi, Professor, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1226212019-08-30T09:17:12Z2019-08-30T09:17:12ZAssessing Jokowi’s $33-billion project to move Indonesia’s capital for the country’s economic development<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/290242/original/file-20190830-115412-4la6p7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C997%2C664&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jakarta’s shortcomings as a capital are obvious: it has headline-grabbing problems with congestion, pollution, and land subsidence. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, known for various infrastructure projects during his tenure, is embarking on another mega-project yet with his plan to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-26/jokowi-picks-borneo-for-new-capital-as-jakarta-nears-gridlock">build a brand-new national capital in East Kalimantan province on the island of Borneo</a>. </p>
<p>The estimated cost to relocate the capital 1,400 kilometers away from Jakarta is <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/energy/why-indonesia-is-shifting-its-capital-from-jakarta/2019/08/26/5be9427e-c7dd-11e9-9615-8f1a32962e04_story.html">US$33 billion</a>, or around <a href="https://jakartaglobe.id/context/jokowi-announces-location-of-indonesias-new-capital/">18%</a> of Indonesia’s <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-president-budget/indonesia-president-proposes-178-billion-budget-for-2020-with-focus-on-education-idUSKCN1V60KI">$178 billion state budget</a>.</p>
<p>Jokowi hinted a sense of urgency in his decision, saying that the construction will start next year, as the <a href="http://www.futuredirections.org.au/publication/jakarta-predicted-to-become-the-worlds-most-populous-city-in-2030-some-opportunities-and-challenges/">polluted and sinking Jakarta is under considerable pressure as a capital city</a>. He announced a site and relocation plan on Monday. </p>
<p>But Jakarta’s problems may not be the only reason for Jokowi’s plan to move the capital. We can also see his move as an effort to shift economic activity and address infrastructure gaps in Indonesia’s side of Borneo, sealing his reputation as the country’s ‘<a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2018/05/05/indonesias-leader-jokowi-is-splurging-on-infrastructure">infrastructure president</a>’ </p>
<h2>Indonesia’s infrastructure gaps</h2>
<p>As an archipelago, Indonesia’s economic activities are spread unevenly across islands – and so are its infrastructure projects. </p>
<p>Java Island, where Jakarta is situated, dominates the country’s economic activities. It is home to almost <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-26/jokowi-picks-borneo-for-new-capital-as-jakarta-nears-gridlock">60%</a> of Indonesia’s population and contributes about <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-26/jokowi-picks-borneo-for-new-capital-as-jakarta-nears-gridlock">58%</a> of its gross domestic product (GDP). Sumatra has about 19% of the population and its contribution to <a href="https://www.indonesia-investments.com/id/news/todays-headlines/indonesias-most-populous-island-of-java-continues-to-dominate-the-economy/item972">GDP hovers around 23%</a>. Meanwhile, Kalimantan accounts for <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-26/jokowi-picks-borneo-for-new-capital-as-jakarta-nears-gridlock">5.8%</a> of the population and contributes <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-08-26/jokowi-picks-borneo-for-new-capital-as-jakarta-nears-gridlock">8.2%</a> of GDP.</p>
<p>Foreign investors, which Jokowi targets to develop the country’s emerging industries, also mostly operate in Java. Japan, a top investor in Indonesia, channels 93% of its investment to Java. <a href="https://perthusasia.edu.au/events/past-conferences/defence-forum-2019/2019-indo-pacific-defence-conference-videos/keynotes-and-feature-presentations/pu-134-japan-book-web.aspx">Only 1% currently goes to Kalimantan</a>.</p>
<p>Given Java and Sumatra’s economic dominance, it is no surprise they have the highest concentration of infrastructure, <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=1R2JXANlCvp0vlAKdk3hRl1iVnlqquhmP&usp=sharing">dotted with numerous road, highway, and toll road projects</a> to help smooth the movement of millions of people and goods. </p>
<p>According to the country’s <a href="https://kppip.go.id/en/national-strategic-projects/">National Strategic Projects pipeline</a>, Java and Sumatra have 154 projects planned compared to 79 in the rest of the country</p>
<p>Meanwhile, infrastructure projects in Kalimantan were almost nonexistent until Jokowi’s presidency. </p>
<p>Under Jokowi, East Kalimantan has <a href="https://en.tempo.co/read/920117/east-kalimantan-railway-investment-to-be-discussed-in-russia">railways</a> planned and a <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/02/17/kalimantans-first-toll-road-to-be-opened-in-august.html">toll road</a> between the cities of Balikpapan and Samarinda under construction near the proposed site. </p>
<h2>Betting on the new capital</h2>
<p>To build a new capital, the government must upgrade existing city infrastructures and plan new projects in the region <a href="https://perthusasia.edu.au/our-work/building-bridges-navigating-indonesias">to support businesses</a>. Otherwise, Jokowi won’t be able to achieve his growth targets and connect Indonesia’s new capital with the global economy.</p>
<p>Jokowi seems to be betting on the idea that relocating the bureaucracy of the world’s third-largest democracy would bring a critical mass of supporting institutions, industries, and investment to enrich a province on the outside of the Java-Sumatra core. </p>
<p>The relocation plans include moving the headquarters of <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/08/27/jokowi-picks-east-kalimantan.html?src=mostviewed&pg=/">powerful ministries and institutions</a> to the new capital starting in 2024. </p>
<p>Diplomatic missions to Indonesia and the ASEAN Secretariat, based in Jakarta, would <a href="https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2019/08/26/jakarta-based-diplomats-question-capital-move">presumably relocate as well</a>. </p>
<h2>Development initiatives in Kalimantan</h2>
<p>Indonesian firms, mostly state-owned firms (SOEs) will likely be the first to break ground in East Kalimantan next year. </p>
<p>They are currently <a href="https://www.economist.com/asia/2018/05/05/indonesias-leader-jokowi-is-splurging-on-infrastructure">building and managing 80%</a> of Indonesia’s infrastructure projects. </p>
<p>Using state companies is a convenient way to expedite new projects because the government often has <a href="https://www.newmandala.org/building-a-better-infrastructure-policy-after-indonesias-elections/">direct influence over the firm</a>. </p>
<p>It also bypasses slow processes like project proposal designs and competitive tendering. But, relying on state companies to lay the foundations for a new city in a comparatively remote region like East Kalimantan has its drawbacks. Overreliance crowds out much-needed private investment and undermines the benefits of competition among contractors. Indonesia’s business community has <a href="https://finance.detik.com/berita-ekonomi-bisnis/d-3673862/kritik-bumn-kuasai-proyek-pengusaha-kita-mau-jadi-pemain-utama">echoed these sentiments</a>.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a big question hangs over how the Indonesian government will involve competing infrastructure and connectivity initiatives such <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/chinas-massive-belt-and-road-initiative">China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)</a> and <a href="https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/oda/page18_000076.html">Japan’s Partnership for Quality Infrastructure (PQI)</a> in the construction of the new capital. </p>
<p>The World Bank and Asian Development Bank have long provided much-needed capital and technical assistance in Indonesia, while the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is a newcomer.</p>
<p>Indonesia has invited China’s BRI to invest in projects in adjacent North Kalimantan province, in particular a <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/04/19/powerchina-to-build-hydropower-plants-for-17-8-billion.html">$17.8 billion hydropower project</a>. </p>
<p>BRI is known for its willingness to pursue projects in challenging regions, but the initiative has suffered from credibility problems in Indonesia. BRI’s flagship project in Indonesia, a high-speed train connecting Jakarta and Bandung, West Java has failed to meet deadlines and officials have begun to view the management of the project as <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-31/indonesia-may-be-next-asian-country-to-spurn-china-in-election">non-transparent</a>.</p>
<h2>Bankability challenges</h2>
<p>To attract more investment for the development of the new national capital, Indonesia needs to solve its bankability problem in infrastructure projects, where lenders are not satisfied enough with the project’s risk profile to invest in it. </p>
<p>Developing a pipeline of bankable projects is an opportunity to engage with the above-mentioned infrastructure initiatives. Well-designed projects that estimate everything from a project’s profitability to its environmental and social impact will be key.</p>
<p>Moving the capital to East Kalimantan promises to disrupt the present geographic spread of development in Indonesia. Jokowi has created an occasion to turn a peripheral region into a new core of economic activity. The infrastructure demands of building a new capital city afford Jokowi yet another opportunity: to call on the resources of Indonesia’s neighbours in the Indo-Pacific region and put their competing infrastructure initiatives to work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122621/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kyle Springer receives funding from the Western Australian State Government and Australian Federal Government. Perth USAsia Centre also receives funding from corporate partners: <a href="https://perthusasia.edu.au/our-partners">https://perthusasia.edu.au/our-partners</a> </span></em></p>Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” decision to relocate the country’s capital is seen as an effort to shift economic activity and address infrastructure gaps outside of Java and Sumatra.Kyle Springer, Senior Analyst at the Perth USAsia Centre, The University of Western AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1162842019-07-24T03:31:59Z2019-07-24T03:31:59ZCan women have it all? Working and mothering in Indonesia’s capital Jakarta<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284473/original/file-20190717-147284-kbqavy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1000%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The gender norm that requires married women to look after the household magnifies the cost for women. As a result, women choose to leave the labour market.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Working in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, is hard. Besides long working hours, Jakartan workers have to face the notorious long commuting times and traffic jams, known as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/nov/23/world-worst-traffic-jakarta-alternative">some of the worst in the world</a>.</p>
<p>For working mothers, it is even harder. </p>
<p>They wake up before sunrise to prepare breakfast for the family. Then they leave their children to babysitters or grandparents, and squeeze themselves into packed public transport or brave the heavy congestion to go to work. </p>
<p>In the end, research finds, they must let their career go due to the huge cost they have to bear. </p>
<p>One of the research’s respondents, identified as Nila, a 29-year-old mother of two toddlers in Depok, Greater Jakarta, is one example. </p>
<p>“I got tired of leaving home early and coming home late, plus I’d have to do the housework too,” she said. “I cannot see where my wages went because going to work is costly. I cannot see the fruits of my labour, so I’d rather be at home.” </p>
<h2>Too costly to work</h2>
<p>Women quitting their jobs after having a family is an everyday story in Indonesia. </p>
<p>One main reason is the expense of going from their houses in the suburbs to offices in the city centre.</p>
<p>The commuting cost is high, particularly for young middle-class families, as they usually choose to live on the outskirts of Jakarta to obtain a decent house at an affordable price. </p>
<p>Based on <a href="https://www.cnnindonesia.com/ekonomi/20190326172742-92-380887/tarif-mrt-dan-biaya-selangit-transportasi-publik">the latest data from the World Bank</a>, transportation costs in Jakarta account for almost 40% of the average salary. It is higher than Singapore and China, where transportation costs only account for 3% and 7%, respectively. </p>
<p>The gender norm that requires married women to look after the households magnifies the cost for women and, as a result, women choose to leave the labour market.</p>
<p>Women have a more complex commuting pattern due to their dual roles. In a day, women could make several trips, from dropping and picking up children from school or childcare centres to shopping and going to work. </p>
<p>This means women spend more when travelling by public transport. </p>
<p>In a recent qualitative <a href="http://www.smeru.or.id/sites/default/files/events/d2_presentation_4_ariane_utomo.pdf">study</a> of married women with young children in Greater Jakarta, long commuting time was found to add to the opportunity cost for women to have a career. The opportunity cost means the value of time that women must give up at home to join the workforce. </p>
<p>The lack of policies supporting mothers drives such high opportunity cost. Current policies provide only short maternity leave and there is a lack of trusted childcare services and flexible working arrangements. </p>
<h2>House location</h2>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01797112">A study</a> found that new families buy their first house when they want to have children. </p>
<p>In Indonesia, many still believe one needs a house to raise a family. Buying a house is associated with having autonomy as compared to renting. </p>
<p>However, young couples are usually still in the early stages of their careers. They are less likely to afford housing close to their workplaces as property prices in the city centre are high. </p>
<p><a href="https://theses.ncl.ac.uk/jspui/handle/10443/3795">A research</a> shows young white-collar workers in Jakarta prefer buying houses in fringe areas like Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi because the prices suit their income ranges. </p>
<p>However, lower house prices are offset by higher commuting costs due to the long distance to and from the city centre where the workplace is located. </p>
<p>Nila’s story suggests commuting costs hits women harder than men. Not only do high travel costs hurt women’s income, the long travel times also reduce their time to care for their children and do housework. </p>
<h2>Either family or job</h2>
<p>Despite the narrowing gender gap in higher education, women are still bound by traditional gender norms. Society <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/5718179">expects women to be mothers and wives rather than having a career</a>. </p>
<p>The labour force participation rate of females aged 15 years and older in Indonesia has stagnated around <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.CACT.FE.ZS?end=2018&locations=ID&start=2009">50%</a> for the last decade. The figure for Jakarta is even lower – <a href="https://jakarta.bps.go.id/publication/download.html?nrbvfeve=NWQ5ODdlOTI4OTQ4NmI0ZTkyMjlkZjQ4&xzmn=aHR0cHM6Ly9qYWthcnRhLmJwcy5nby5pZC9wdWJsaWNhdGlvbi8yMDE4LzA0LzI0LzVkOTg3ZTkyODk0ODZiNGU5MjI5ZGY0OC9rZWFkYWFuLWFuZ2thdGFuLWtlcmphLXByb3ZpbnNpLWRraS1qYWthcnRhLS1hZ3VzdHVzLTIwMTcuaHRtbA%3D%3D&twoadfnoarfeauf=MjAxOS0wNy0xNyAwMDoyMjozNg%3D%3D">48.47%</a> in 2018. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284476/original/file-20190717-147288-so2znd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284476/original/file-20190717-147288-so2znd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/284476/original/file-20190717-147288-so2znd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284476/original/file-20190717-147288-so2znd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284476/original/file-20190717-147288-so2znd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284476/original/file-20190717-147288-so2znd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284476/original/file-20190717-147288-so2znd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/284476/original/file-20190717-147288-so2znd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Female labour force participation rate (%) in Indonesia and Jakarta, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Source: National Labour Force Survey (BPS-Statistics Indonesia, 2018).</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, the data indicated that Jakartan women’s chances to participate in the labour market become smaller once they have children.</p>
<p>Unlike other Indonesian women, Jakartan women seem to be out of the labour market for the rest of their life. </p>
<p>The highly competitive formal sector dominates Jakarta’s economy. So, women with years of non-employment episodes will find it harder to return to the labour market as they have less working experience. </p>
<h2>Solutions</h2>
<p><a href="https://surveymeter.org/read/424/how-jakartas-traffic-affects-labor-market-outcomes-for-women-and-people-with-disabilities-results-form-a-baseline-survey-final-report">A study</a> in 2017 indicated that reducing transport costs might not be the main solution to increase women’s participation in the labour market in Jakarta, but it could help. </p>
<p>Developing an integrated transportation system in Greater Jakarta with more public transportation options will not only reduce the congestion but will also cut commuting time. </p>
<p>President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has issued a <a href="https://setkab.go.id/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Perpres-Nomor-55-Tahun-2018.pdf">plan</a> involving different ministries and both local and central government to develop an integrated urban transport network in Greater Jakarta by 2029.</p>
<p>The implementation of the plan will help working parents better manage their time for childcare and domestic work as it reduces their commuting time. </p>
<p>Responding to <a href="https://surveymeter.org/read/424/how-jakartas-traffic-affects-labor-market-outcomes-for-women-and-people-with-disabilities-results-form-a-baseline-survey-final-report">the 2017 study</a>, current efforts to stop women from quitting their jobs focus more on reducing the burden of child-rearing. These steps include opening childcare services and providing flexible working hours as well as paternity leave. </p>
<p>However, as long as the problems of long hours and costs of commuting still exist, those policies will not work.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116284/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diahhadi Setyonaluri menerima dana hibah penelitian dari Indonesia Project Research Grant - the Australian National University pada tahun 2015 dan Sumitomo Foundation pada tahun 2017 untuk penelitian tentang fenomena perempuan berhenti bekerja di Indonesia. </span></em></p>Women quitting their jobs after having a family is an everyday story in Indonesia.Diahhadi Setyonaluri, Researcher, Universitas IndonesiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1174972019-05-27T05:06:08Z2019-05-27T05:06:08ZDoes Indonesia really need to move its capital?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/276056/original/file-20190523-187176-1o1y15j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C2986%2C1378&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indonesia's capital city Jakarta. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Indonesia has long considered moving its capital Jakarta, a low-lying city on the northwest coast of the island of Java in Southeast Asia. The idea has been floated since the days of the first president, Sukarno, who declared the country’s independence from the Dutch in Jakarta in 1945. Now the idea might come true as President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, recently elected for a second term, seems serious about moving the capital. </p>
<p>Jokowi has visited <a href="https://regional.kompas.com/read/2019/05/08/09044891/perjalanan-jokowi-mencari-ibu-kota-baru-dari-bukit-soeharto-kaltim-ke?page=all">several possible locations in Kalimantan, Indonesia’s side of the island of Borneo</a>. The country’s Development Planning Agency (Bappenas) said moving the capital has been <a href="https://money.kompas.com/read/2019/05/09/184859926/kepala-bappenas-pemindahan-ibu-kota-masuk-rpjmn-2020-2024">included in the 2020-2024 National Development Plan</a>. </p>
<p>The government has argued that moving the capital will reduce the development gap between Java and other islands and that Jakarta is overburdened by population growth. I study urban/rural issues. I believe the government’s reasoning to move the capital is weak. </p>
<h2>Imagination of equitable development</h2>
<p>Data from the <a href="https://www.bps.go.id/pressrelease/2019/02/06/1619/ekonomi-indonesia-2018-tumbuh-5-17-persen.html">Country’s Statistics Agency in 2018</a> show economic activity in Java has contributed 58.48% of Indonesia’s gross domestic product (GDP). The eastern part of Indonesia, which includes Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua, and covers 64% of the nation’s total area, contributes only 16.8% of GDP. This situation has not changed much since <a href="https://www.bps.go.id/pressrelease/2011/02/07/891/pertumbuhan-pdb-tahun-2010-mencapai-6-1-persen.html">2010</a>.</p>
<p>The government argues that moving the capital out of Java will support equitable development in eastern Indonesia.</p>
<p>But to support growth in less developed areas the government needs to distribute more new centres of growth and economic opportunities, chiefly to eastern Indonesia. Moving the capital city alone will not be enough. </p>
<p>The government’s 2015-2019 Development Plan included policies to create these new growth centres. But we’ve yet to see how the policies have been implemented. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.smeru.or.id/sites/default/files/publication/regionalheterogeneity_eng_0_0.pdf">Research on decentralisation</a> has shown that regional development has the potential to reduce poverty and inequality. Decentralisation allows the emergence of new economic growth poles such as Bantaeng (South Sulawesi) and Banyuwangi (East Java).</p>
<p>But, in its effort to support villages, the central government often carried out rushed interventions and did not consider the diversity of contexts plus needs of the local area, a <a href="http://www.smeru.or.id/sites/default/files/publication/uudes_endline.pdf">study</a> shows. </p>
<p>The government should avoid creating the impression that all problems can only be overcome by central intervention. The idea that moving the capital will solve inequality is centralistic and runs against the spirit of equitable development.</p>
<h2>Contradiction in carrying capacity of Jakarta</h2>
<p>The second reason the government uses to support moving the capital relates to population and environmental pressure on Jakarta. The capital has been considered as not conducive for government.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqZVnMC3mRM">Bappenas</a> argues that Jakarta continues to experience population pressure due to urbanisation. Jakarta has risks of earthquake, floods and water shortages. The <a href="https://megapolitan.kompas.com/read/2018/09/06/05485461/61-persen-sungai-dki-tercemar-berat">river is heavily polluted</a>. Also, traffic congestion in Jakarta results in <a href="https://properti.kompas.com/read/2019/01/09/103050221/rp-65-triliun-hilang-per-tahun-akibat-kemacetan-di-jadebotabek">economic losses reaching Rp56 trillion (USD$3.8 billion)</a> per year.</p>
<p>The government argues that moving the capital will reduce Jakarta’s burden. The new capital city will be designed as a government centre and separate from the business centre. This concept is the same as in Australia, with <a href="https://www.nca.gov.au/canberra-seat-government">Canberra and Sydney</a>, and Malaysia, with <a href="http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/UF/E0/04/18/15/00001/tran_l.pdf">Putra Jaya and Kuala Lumpur</a>.</p>
<p>But government activities contribute <a href="http://www.tribunnews.com/nasional/2019/04/29/ibu-kota-indonesia-bakal-pindah-anies-baswedan-tak-akan-mengurangi-kemacetan-jakarta">only 10% of the capital’s burden</a>. </p>
<p>The transfer of the capital seems like an attempt to escape the problem of chronic diseases in Jakarta that need to be addressed immediately. If not, activities in Jakarta will be paralysed and disrupt the Indonesian economy because <a href="https://m.detik.com/finance/berita-ekonomi-bisnis/d-2181083/jakarta-kuasai-70-perputaran-uang-sayangnya-kesenjangan-tinggi">70% of the country’s money circulation occurs in Jakarta</a>.</p>
<p>Moreover, Indonesia aims to make Jakarta a <a href="https://m.detik.com/20detik/blak-blakan/20190515-190515014/blak-blakan-kepala-bappenas-kenapa-ibu-kota-harus-pindah">centre of global business</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt2jc93q">To become a global city</a> a city must be home to international-scale activities, such as being a financial centre, global tourism destination, have international organisation offices, and host of world events. This can be found in world cities such as London in England, Tokyo in Japan, and Paris in France.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the new capital, which will only carry out government functions, will not be effective as a new growth centre, because such a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/New-Town-Planning-Principles-Practice/dp/0471310387">city needs a strong economic base, such as an industrial or business centre</a>.</p>
<h2>Problems with Bappenas data transparency</h2>
<p>Bappenas, which is responsible for assessing the plan to move the capital, has never actually publicised its study of the capital transfer to the public. </p>
<p>As a result, many parties are asking what the urgency of moving the capital city is. Indeed, they see this as an attempt to <a href="https://nasional.sindonews.com/read/1400069/12/wacana-ibu-kota-pindah-diminta-jangan-jadi-pengalihan-isu-pemilu-1556589914">distract from other issues during the election campaign</a>.</p>
<p>Before arguing about where the right location for the new capital city is, we must be sure the decision has been supported by evidence and comprehensive analysis of its implications. Otherwise, we risk repeating the same mistakes and creating problems in the new capital. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Amira Swastika Dianty translated this article from Indonesian.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/117497/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rendy A. Diningrat tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Indonesia has plans to move its capital outside of Java, but the government has yet to make the case for this move.Rendy A. Diningrat, Researcher, SMERU Research InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1106072019-05-07T01:31:40Z2019-05-07T01:31:40ZHow intolerance can persist in democratic countries: the case of Indonesia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271281/original/file-20190428-194603-1u9c8e0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C991%2C664&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Democracy can still perform in Indonesia despite the absence of tolerance. Fifteen years after the Acehnese tsunami, various religious people visited mass graves built by Muslims in 2018.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Is tolerance among different groups a prerequisite for democracy?</p>
<p>Indonesia’s case shows that it’s not. Democracy, a system of government based on elected representation, is thriving in the world’s most populous Muslim country. Democratically elected presidents have governed Southeast Asia’s largest economy since the fall of Soeharto’s authoritarian regime in 1998. The country has just carried out elections in April. </p>
<p>At the same time intolerance of minority groups is widespread. </p>
<p>The capital, Jakarta, and former capital, Yogyakarta, located about 500km southeast from Jakarta, are top of the list on the <a href="https://www.bps.go.id/dynamictable/2017/05/04/1241/indeks-demokrasi-indonesia-idi-menurut-provinsi-2009-2017.html">Indonesia Democracy Index</a>. But they are also listed as <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/10t_zzYEUnz63C2P5q5lc7q7yR_zUEVh1/view">the most intolerant cities</a>, according to human rights advocacy group Setara Institute. Its latest report indicates that this is due to poor regulation and governance in response to intolerant practices in both cities.</p>
<p>Referring to these cases in Jakarta and Yogyakarta, we argue that democracy and tolerance are independent of each other. </p>
<p>Democracy can still perform in Indonesia despite intolerance of minority groups. To ensure that consensus as a prerequisite for a democratic society can be reached, the minority has no choice but to keep silent and succumb to the power of the majority. </p>
<h2>Democratic but intolerant in Yogyakarta and Jakarta</h2>
<p>Last year, Indonesia’s Statistics Agency published a report showing the <a href="https://www.bps.go.id/dynamictable/2017/05/04/1241/indeks-demokrasi-indonesia-idi-menurut-provinsi-2009-2016.html">Indonesian Democracy Index improved in 2017</a>, compared to 2016. The index rates each province in Indonesia based on its civil liberties, political rights and democratic institutions. </p>
<p>Yogyakarta, the seat of the Javanese monarch Hamengkubuwono X, has always <a href="https://www.bps.go.id/pressrelease/2018/08/15/1534/indeks-demokrasi-indonesia--idi--tingkat-nasional-2017-mengalami-peningkatan-dibandingkan-dengan-idi-nasional-2016.html">secured top spot</a> in the index in the past few years. </p>
<p>However, Yogyakarta’s tolerance index was the <a href="http://setara-institute.org/indeks-kota-toleran-tahun-2017/">sixth-lowest</a> compared to 93 other cities in 2017. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://crcs.ugm.ac.id/news/12185/unduh-buku-krisis-keistimewaan-di-yogyakarta.html">Centre for Religious and Cross-cultural Studies</a> identified around 66 violent conflicts in Yogyakarta between 2011 and 2016. In the latest case this year, <a href="https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/indonesias-yogyakarta-city-in-spotlight-as-more-crosses-desecrated">11</a> wooden crosses at a Christian cemetery in Yogyakarta were destroyed. A village in Yogyakarta also recently <a href="https://kumparan.com/@kumparannews/slamet-ditolak-tinggal-di-dusun-karet-bantul-karena-bukan-muslim-1554185490394432521">barred</a> a non-Muslim from living in their village.</p>
<p>A similar pattern can be found in Jakarta.</p>
<p>The capital was rated <a href="https://www.bps.go.id/dynamictable/2017/05/04/1241/indeks-demokrasi-indonesia-idi-menurut-provinsi-2009-2016.html">Indonesia’s most democratic city</a> for three years: 2014, 2015 and 2017.</p>
<p>In 2016, <a href="https://jakarta.bps.go.id/pressrelease/2017/09/14/249/indeks-demokrasi-indonesia--idi--provinsi-dki-jakarta-2016-mencapai-angka-70-85.html">Jakarta lost that title</a> due to a combination of acts of communal violence by sections of society and a poor response from the local administration in handling these violent cases. Jakarta ranked 24th out of 34 provinces in 2016. </p>
<p>However, similar to Yogyakarta, Jakarta scored the lowest in the tolerance index in <a href="http://setara-institute.org/indeks-kota-toleran-tahun-2017/">2017</a>. </p>
<p>Jakarta gained its status as an intolerant city after intolerant practices by Muslim conservatives marred its gubernatorial election in 2017. In the end, the conservative groups ousted Christian-Chinese incumbent Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama. </p>
<p><iframe id="IoCnt" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/IoCnt/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Between democracy and tolerance</h2>
<p>There are at least two conditions to have a democratic society. First, it must ensure <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300194463/democracy">equality</a> for all actors to participate in decision-making processes. </p>
<p>Second, when <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/jod.1990.0047">conflicts arise</a>, society can manage them within defined and universally accepted boundaries.</p>
<p>For example, imagine that you are attending a public forum or discussion to choose a leader for your community. The organiser announces that each one of you has the same right to participate and you are delighted to hear that. As the debates continue between different sides defending their arguments, you realise that things may become uncontrolled as no one wants to compromise and no one wants to lose. </p>
<p>Hours later, everybody is tired, and someone finally says: “Let’s remember that each one of us should have the same right to participate, therefore, let’s ask each one of us who is the better leader, then the one who has the most support wins.” </p>
<p>There you have the ideal condition that most democracies imagine today: participation and manageable conflict.</p>
<p>Let’s turn to tolerance. We define tolerance as putting up with those we disagree with, dislike, or who are different from us, without coercion. Don’t forget that the act of tolerance means that one side (the one that tolerates) accepts the other side (the one that is tolerated) so it masks unbalanced <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487392">power relations</a>. Therefore, in the context of plural communities, tolerance from both sides is needed. </p>
<p>From the conceptual exercise, we can argue that tolerance is highly relevant in democracies because disagreements, dislikes and differences are inevitable in plural communities. </p>
<h2>Intolerant practices in the democratic sphere</h2>
<p>It is also important to note that consensus in a democratic society can be reached through domination by the majority that silences the minority. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.dw.com/id/noelle-neumann-pionir-peneliti-opini-publik-di-jerman/a-5398080">Elizabeth Noelle-Neumann</a>, a leading German researcher on public opinion, calls the process a “spiral of silence”. </p>
<p>From the “spiral of silence framework”, we can see how an idea takes hold in society. </p>
<p>We can see how this concept works through analysing how the rejection of Ahok, which was based on racial and religious grounds, could be accepted.</p>
<p>Ahok’s rejection was made possible through a mainstreaming of Islamic values via popular culture and daily lives. This process is called “<a href="https://law.unimelb.edu.au/centres/cilis/research/publications/cilis-policy-papers/normalising-intolerance-elections,-religion-and-everyday-life-in-indonesia">normalisation</a>”. </p>
<p>As a result of this normalisation, it is difficult to counter the intolerant narratives without being accused of being anti-Islam. Living in a Muslim-majority country, people fear the anti-Islam label. </p>
<p>A similar thing also happens in Yogyakarta. The minority tends to accept mistreatment by the majority as they feel the power of the majority is so big that it doesn’t leave any option for the minority but to succumb. They also feel that their fight against <a href="https://kontras.org/2018/11/16/kitaberhak-catatan-atas-hari-toleransi-internasional-2018/">intolerant practices</a> will be useless as those in authority and legal enforcers tend to defend the majority. </p>
<p>Both processes of mainstreaming and normalisation are arguably part of efforts to push ideas belonging to the majority to dominate the public sphere, while at the same time suppressing opposing ideas belonging to minority groups. </p>
<p>Democracy in Indonesia, then, seems to allow the majority to rule over the minority. What is happening in Jakarta and Yogyakarta shows that consensus in a democratic setting can be continuously achieved, but it will not always be a tolerant one.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/110607/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jimmy Daniel Berlianto Oley terafiliasi dengan The SMERU Research Institute. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yudi Fajar M Wahyu terafiliasi dengan The SMERU Research Institute. </span></em></p>Let’s rethink the way we understand democracy and tolerance.Jimmy Daniel Berlianto Oley, Junior Researcher, SMERU Research InstituteYudi Fajar M Wahyu, Senior Researcher, SMERU Research InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1162662019-05-01T20:18:06Z2019-05-01T20:18:06ZIndonesia isn’t the only country planning new cities. Why not Australia?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271893/original/file-20190501-136784-1vrb4zb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Indonesia plans to relocate its capital from the sprawling city of Jakarta – and it isn't the only country with plans to build whole new cities.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AsiaTravel/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The announcement that President Joko Widodo’s government will <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-29/jakarta-to-no-longer-be-capital-of-indonesia-planning-minister/11056306">move Indonesia’s capital</a> to another location, due to the severity of <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-29/jakarta,-a-city-under-pressure-from-a-growing-population/8480226">human-induced degradation in Jakarta</a>, highlights a key tension for cities today. In the face of increasingly unsustainable urban environments, do we retrofit existing cities, or relocate and build new cities to achieve greater sustainability? </p>
<p>The answer is both. But each has its challenges.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-cities-its-an-idea-worth-thinking-about-for-australia-92990">New cities? It's an idea worth thinking about for Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Creating new cities</h2>
<p>The goal of turning cities from sustainability problems to solutions is driving a suite of “future city” innovations. These include the planning and development of whole new cities.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/08/smart-cities-forest-city-belmont/">increasing number of countries</a> are planning to build cities from scratch using technological innovation to achieve more sustainable urban development. <a href="https://www.nst.com.my/property/2018/09/411211/forest-city-%E2%80%94-model-other-cities">Forest City in Malaysia</a>, <a href="http://smartcityaz.com/">Belmont smart city</a> in the United States and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/aug/06/five-years-ago-there-was-nothing-inside-duqm-the-city-rising-from-the-sand-oman-city-sand-luxury-hotels-housing">Sino-Oman Industrial City</a> are just some of the examples. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ctkERUu7sdU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Forest City is Malaysia’s biggest development project.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The urban ambition includes creating carless and walkable cities, green cities able to produce oxygen through eco-skyscrapers, high-speed internet embedded in the urban fabric, the capacity to convert waste into energy, and reclaiming land to create new strategic trade opportunities. </p>
<p>However, striking the right balance between innovative ideas and democratic expectations, including the public right to the city, remains a challenge.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/will-habitat-iii-defend-the-human-right-to-the-city-57576">Will Habitat III defend the human right to the city?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="http://www.mxcfilm.com/">The Minnesota Experimental City</a> offers a cautionary tale. The aim was to solve urban problems by creating a new city. It would use the latest technology including nuclear energy, automated cars and a domed roof enclosure. </p>
<p>Despite significant government and financial backing, including its own state agency, the Minnesota project failed due to a lack of public understanding and local support for a top-down futuristic project.</p>
<h2>Who gets left behind?</h2>
<p>In 1960, Brazil moved its capital from Rio de Janeiro to the futuristic city of <a href="https://brasilialifeafterdesign.com/">Brasilia</a>. While the city was designed to accommodate both rich and poor, it quickly became unaffordable for the average family. Half a century on, it was <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-20632277">reported</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The poor have been shunted out to satellite cities, which range from proper well-built cities to something more like a shanty town.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271890/original/file-20190501-136787-19tjt88.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271890/original/file-20190501-136787-19tjt88.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/271890/original/file-20190501-136787-19tjt88.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271890/original/file-20190501-136787-19tjt88.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271890/original/file-20190501-136787-19tjt88.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271890/original/file-20190501-136787-19tjt88.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=724&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271890/original/file-20190501-136787-19tjt88.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=724&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/271890/original/file-20190501-136787-19tjt88.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=724&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Indonesian capital Jakarta is part of a larger mega-city.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/vector-map-indonesian-megacity-urban-area-1306511566?src=cXVttw8d5C49wehUebYppg-1-1">Rainer Lesniewski/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Indonesia, more than 30 million people – <a href="https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/09/20/the-need-a-national-urban-development-policy-indonesia.html">a fifth of the nation’s urban residents</a> and more than a tenth of the <a href="http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/indonesia-population/">269 million population</a> – live in Greater Jakarta. The capital city Jakarta is just one part of a larger mega-city agglomeration, the world’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jakarta">second-largest after Greater Tokyo</a>. This vast connected urban meta-region is known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jabodetabek">Jabodetabek</a>, from the initials of the cities within it: Jakarta (with a population of 10 million), Bogor (1 million), Depok (2.1 million), Tangerang (2 million), South Tangerang (1.5 million) and Bekasi (2.7 million). </p>
<p>A key reason for moving the capital is that Jakarta is prone to serious flooding and is <a href="https://www.deltares.nl/app/uploads/2015/09/Sinking-cities.pdf">rapidly sinking</a>. Jakarta also suffers <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-29/jakarta,-a-city-under-pressure-from-a-growing-population/8480226">overpopulation, severe traffic gridlock, slums</a> and a lack of critical urban infrastructure such as drainage and sanitation. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-sea-isnt-actually-level-why-rising-oceans-will-hit-some-cities-more-than-others-68378">The sea isn't actually 'level': why rising oceans will hit some cities more than others</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Relocating the capital away from the <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-29/jakarta-to-no-longer-be-capital-of-indonesia-planning-minister/11056306">crowded main island of Java</a> offers the opportunity to better plan the political and administrative centre using the latest urban design features and technology.</p>
<p>Two key questions arise. If environmental degradation and overpopulation are the key issues, what will become of the largely remaining population of Greater Jakarta? At a national scale, how will this relocation help overcome the <a href="https://theconversation.com/two-decades-of-economic-growth-benefited-only-the-richest-20-how-severe-is-inequality-in-indonesia-101138">socio-economic and spatial disparities</a> that exist in Indonesia?</p>
<p>Egypt, for example, is <a href="https://theconversation.com/egypt-is-building-a-new-capital-city-from-scratch-heres-how-to-avoid-inequality-and-segregation-103402">building a new capital city</a> to overcome severe urban congestion and overcrowding in Greater Cairo. But there is no guarantee the new capital will resolve these issues if the emphasis is solely on technological innovation, without adequate attention to urban equity and fairness.</p>
<h2>More of the same in Australia</h2>
<p>The Australian population is <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/mf/3222.0">projected to grow to 36 million in the next 30 years</a>. This is focusing political, policy and public attention on what this means for the future of the nation’s cities. </p>
<p>Despite all the advances that have occurred in technology, the arts, architecture, design and the sciences, there is surprisingly little innovation or public discussion about what might be possible for 21st-century Australian settlements beyond the capital cities.</p>
<p>Future Australian city planning and development focuses largely on enlarging and intensifying the footprints of existing major cities. The current urban policy trajectory is in-fill development and expansion of the existing state capital mega-city regions, where <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/3218.0Main%20Features12017-18?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=3218.0&issue=2017-18&num=&view=">two-thirds of the population live</a>. But what is lost through this approach? </p>
<p>In Australia only two ambitious “new city” plans have been put forward in the last 50 years: <a href="https://crawford.anu.edu.au/pdf/pep/pep-283.pdf">the Multifunction Polis</a> (MFP) and <a href="http://www.clara.com.au/index.html">the CLARA Plan</a>. </p>
<p>In the late 1980s the MFP was envisaged as a high-tech city of the future with nuclear power, modern communication and Asian investment. It failed to gain the necessary political, investment and public support and was never built. </p>
<p>The current CLARA Plan proposes building up to eight new regional smart cities connected by a high-speed rail system linking Sydney and Melbourne via Canberra. Each of these cities is designed to be compact, environmentally sustainable and just a quick train trip away from the capital cities. </p>
<p>CLARA has outlined a “<a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-value-capture-and-what-does-it-mean-for-cities-58776">value capture</a>” business model based on private city land development, not “government coffer” funding. How these new cities propose to function within the constitutional framework of Australia is as yet unclear and untested.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7FJ7sXTdQ2k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The privately funded CLARA plan is to build up to eight compact, sustainable, smart cities connected via high-speed rail.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/high-speed-rail-plan-still-needs-to-prove-economic-benefits-will-outweigh-costs-63330">High speed rail plan still needs to prove economic benefits will outweigh costs</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A bipartisan challenge</h2>
<p>Are we thinking too narrowly when we talk about future Australian cities?</p>
<p>The “future city” prompts us to rethink and re-imagine the complex nature and make-up of our urban settlements, and the role of critical infrastructure and planning within them. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-critical-about-critical-infrastructure-73849">What's critical about critical infrastructure?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The future of Australian cities will require creativity, vision (even courage) to respond effectively to the challenges and opportunities of sustainable development. </p>
<p>This will not be the remit of any one political party, but a bipartisan national urban settlement agenda that affects and involves all Australians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/116266/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Steele receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She is an Urban Scholar with the UN Global City Compact and member of the Australasian Cities Research Network.</span></em></p>Other countries are planning new cities using technological innovation to achieve more sustainable development. Such plans aren’t new for Australia, but existing city growth is the focus of attention.Wendy Steele, Associate Professor, Centre of Urban Research and Urban Futures Enabling Capability Platform, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1129112019-03-27T10:30:57Z2019-03-27T10:30:57ZHow social media is helping Big Tobacco hook a new generation of smokers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265976/original/file-20190326-36279-kq8543.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Documents show tobacco companies have marketed their products to young people. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-rainbow-hair-woman-smoking-sun-568073914">Canna Obscura/shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Big Tobacco is increasingly using social media to find new ways to hook young people on smoking, <a href="https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/press-releases/id_0265">circumventing decades of laws</a> restricting the marketing of traditional cigarettes to minors.</p>
<p>In major cities around the world such as Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, Jakarta and Milan, tobacco companies have been holding extravagant events with names like “<a href="https://www.instagram.com/k.player/">K_Player</a>” and “<a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/redmovenow/">RedMoveNow</a>” that were designed to connect with young people. Often featuring alcohol, live music and attractive hosts, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/health/tobacco-social-media-smoking.html">these lavish events spare no expense</a> as they seek find new buyers for their tobacco products. </p>
<p>The problem? Those party-goers are carefully targeted young influencers, who are encouraged to share photos of their glamorous tobacco-sponsored adventures with friends and followers on social media using appealing hashtags like <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/iamonthemove/">#iamonthemove</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/decideyourflow/">#decideyourflow</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/mydaynow/">#mydaynow</a>. And although the influencers are over 18, their social media followers can be much younger. </p>
<p>This exploitation of social media’s organic reach is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/24/health/tobacco-social-media-smoking.html">one of the findings</a> from a global research project <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_TUaYW4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I’ve been working on</a> since 2016 with more than a dozen different scholars. The anti-smoking advocacy group <a href="https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/">Tobacco-Free Kids</a> noticed a lot of photos of young people with cigarettes turning up in their online scans of global social media and asked me to look into it.</p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_TUaYW4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">My own research</a> focuses on how to rigorously research online culture using natural observational techniques, something that this study definitely required.</p>
<p>My team’s task was to monitor, report upon and analyze the programs behind the hashtagged social media posts of young people smoking. What we learned about tobacco company’s current advertising surprised us. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265977/original/file-20190326-36283-14o6e8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/265977/original/file-20190326-36283-14o6e8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265977/original/file-20190326-36283-14o6e8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265977/original/file-20190326-36283-14o6e8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=383&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265977/original/file-20190326-36283-14o6e8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265977/original/file-20190326-36283-14o6e8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/265977/original/file-20190326-36283-14o6e8v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tobacco ads were much bigger in 1996 – literally.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Associated-Press-Domestic-News-New-York-United-/73daa007fae6da11af9f0014c2589dfb/33/0">AP Photo/Mark Lennihan</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Skirting marketing restrictions</h2>
<p>Tobacco companies have always had a knack for finding creative ways to skirt regulations intended to curb marketing to young people. </p>
<p>In 1971, the U.S. Congress <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2009/04/congress-bans-cigarette-ads-on-the-air-april-1-1970-020715">banned tobacco ads</a> from television and radio. In response, companies invested heavily in outdoor advertising and magazines. In 1997, <a href="https://publichealthlawcenter.org/topics/tobacco-control/tobacco-control-litigation/master-settlement-agreement">the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement</a> banned tobacco on outdoor and billboard ads. In response, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Tobacco_industry_sponsorship_of_sporting_events">tobacco money flowed into sponsorships</a> of sports, music and other events. These type of <a href="https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/867690">event sponsorships were banned</a>, with some exceptions, in 2010, at the same time wider restrictions on youth marketing were also introduced.</p>
<p>No matter the medium, the messaging was often the same: find ways to reach new and young potential smokers. As documents from the <a href="http://industrydocuments.library.ucsf.edu/tobacco/docs/gfvn0042">Legacy Tobacco Documents Library</a> reveal, tobacco executives have long believed that the continued survival and success of their companies depends on one thing: <a href="http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/tid/mqu46b00">convincing young people</a> to buy their products. </p>
<p>In 2005, the World Health Organization <a href="https://medium.com/@TobaccoFreeSC/tobacco-companies-targeting-youth-25ba3fff1daa">banned tobacco advertising</a> in 168 signatory countries. By 2010, the U.S. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_Smoking_Prevention_and_Tobacco_Control_Act">had closed a lot</a> of Big Tobacco’s favorite advertising and tobacco loopholes.</p>
<p>With conventional media mostly off-limits, what was Big Tobacco to do? Like the Marlboro Man, the unregulated Wild West of social media rode to the rescue. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BcSsmNmDebk/?utm_source=ig_embed","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>The perfect marketing medium</h2>
<p>Social media fits Big Tobacco’s advertising needs to a tee. </p>
<p>At least <a href="http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/">88 percent of American youth</a> say they use social media apps like Facebook and Instagram regularly, and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/regulate-social-media-its-a-bit-more-complicated-than-that-103797">technologies are notoriously difficult</a> to regulate.</p>
<p>With Tobacco-Free Kids’ financial support, I assembled a growing team of researchers to investigate. Our work is ongoing. </p>
<p>My team collected a plethora of social media data and also conducted interviews with a range of tobacco brand ambassadors, party attendees, influencers and industry insiders from around the world. What we found was an astoundingly effective use of social media by a range of different tobacco companies to connect with the next generation of potential cigarette smokers. </p>
<p>While tobacco companies were careful to abide by the letter of the law – the influencers involved in these posts were all of legal smoking age in their countries – social media has a public setting that makes it an effective and largely unregulated form of broadcast. </p>
<p>Legally, <a href="https://help.instagram.com/517920941588885">anyone age 13 or over</a> can have an Instagram or Facebook account. Our “<a href="https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol15/iss5/13/">netnography</a>” – a type of qualitative social media inquiry that focuses on cultural contexts, social structures and deeper meanings – only looked at public posts, images that any 13-year-old with an account could see.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BYKCuj8lWEF/?utm_source=ig_embed","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>Training camps and pop-up parties</h2>
<p>Our investigation uncovered a range of promotional activities and a web of public relations and advertising agencies that cleverly leveraged the strengths of social media to keep tobacco advertising under the radar of existing regulation. </p>
<p>We found tobacco companies in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines recruiting “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/11/business/media/nanoinfluencers-instagram-influencers.html">nano-influencers</a>” of just 2,000-3,000 followers on Facebook and Instagram and encouraging them to post about their tobacco-sponsored adventures. </p>
<p>In Indonesia, we found brand ambassador training camps that lasted two full weeks and were run by the domestic tobacco company Gudang Garam. At these camps, young nano-influencers were paid generous fees, taught about cigarette brands images and then provided lessons about how to better maintain their social media feeds.</p>
<p>Public relations agencies in Uruguay taught their influencers how to take pictures of cigarette packages in ways that best accentuated their brands, offering tips on lighting, hashtags and the best time to post them for maximum impact. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BgWD_ChHMO8/?utm_source=ig_embed","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Some companies used Facebook pages to recruit young people to attend their parties. After answering a few questions on the Facebook page, for example, responders were enrolled in a mailing list resulting in invitations to cool pop-up “parties and edgier events.” </p>
<p>At those parties, young people were greeted by attractive attendants who offered them cigarettes and encouraged them to pose with floor designs modeled after cigarette brand logos. After snapping pictures, they were encouraged to post them on their social media feed using the party’s decisiveness and action-oriented hashtags. The result was unquestionably a new form of cigarette promotion.</p>
<p>These activities clearly violate the spirit of the existing agreements not to indirectly advertise to young people. You can call it stealth, undercover or guerrilla marketing if you wish. Whatever its name, this is 21st-century cigarette advertising that reaches millions of young people around the world.</p>
<h2>Exploiting social media</h2>
<p>Our research has not only helped shine a light on Big Tobacco’s unchecked use of social media, it has also informed <a href="https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/assets/content/press_office/2018/2018_08_ftc_petition.pdf">a recent petition to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission</a> requesting it to investigate and enforce these novel forms of cigarette advertising. </p>
<p>Although it might be difficult for governments to keep on top of media in these rapidly changing times, they must do so if they hope to prevent <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/smoking">global smoking rates</a> and their consequent health problems from rising once again. Indeed, with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/health/tobacco-e-cigarettes-lobbying-fda.html">leadership change in the Food and Drug Administration</a>, new and tighter regulations on tobacco and vaping in the United States are already being cast into doubt. </p>
<p>Social media provide an incredible advance in communications that democratize communications in unprecedented ways. </p>
<p>However, that openness is easy to exploit by marketers with dubious motives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112911/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Kozinets received funding support for the research project mentioned in this article from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington, DC based non-profit dedicated to reducing tobacco consumption worldwide. He continues to work pro bono with the organization and proudly supports their championing of tobacco consumption reduction, especially among young people.</span></em></p>Tobacco companies are enlisting the help of social media influencers to promote traditional cigarettes and their brands to young people.Robert Kozinets, Jayne and Hans Hufschmid Chair in Strategic Public Relations and Business Communication, USC Annenberg School for Communication and JournalismLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1053572018-10-26T05:05:11Z2018-10-26T05:05:11ZThe secret to the long life of Jakarta’s minibuses<p>With the modernisation of Jakarta’s transportation system, many have predicted that traditional transportation modes will go extinct. The impending operation of Jakarta’s <a href="https://www.jakartamrt.co.id/">MRT</a> and <a href="https://megapolitan.kompas.com/read/2018/08/07/21202231/lrt-jakarta-diprediksi-baru-beroperasi-penuh-pada-desember">LRT</a> systems is expected to replace Jakarta’s many minibuses such as <em>angkot</em>, <em>Metro Mini</em>, <em>Kopaja</em> and <em>bemo</em>.</p>
<p>My <a href="http://www.insideindonesia.org/minibus-and-transjakarta-transport-wars">study</a> has found that Jakarta’s traditional transportation modes are quite resistant to changes. These have existed since the time of the Dutch East Indies until today despite having undergone changes. </p>
<p>Their existence in Jakarta is not simply a matter of meeting the needs of public transportation. Their prolonged existence relates to their social and political functions and the interests of thousands of employers and workers in Jakarta.</p>
<h2>Early history</h2>
<p>I used the term “minibus” for these traditional transportation modes. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0739885908000218//">Transportation experts</a> often use this term to refer to the smaller-sized buses used as public transport. In Jakarta, a minibus refers to medium-sized buses, such as <em>Kopaja</em> and <em>Metro Mini</em>, and small buses such as <em>angkot</em> and <em>omprengan</em>, along with the three-wheeled <em>bemo</em>. All these vehicles are operated individually on a fixed route.</p>
<p>The minibus first appeared in the form of the <em>oplet</em> by the end of the Dutch East Indies era along the electric tram routes that connected the areas of Kota, Weltevreden (which is now the National Monument), Tanah Abang in Central Jakarta and Jatinegara in East Jakarta. </p>
<p>After independence, <em>oplet</em> started to overtake tram services by offering quicker and more comfortable transport. But the minibus only started to rise to its full glory when the tram was ended in 1960 by the order of President Soekarno who considered it old-fashioned when compared to cars, which symbolised urban modernity.</p>
<p>Afterwards, the New Order regime continued the same urban planning and transportation policy that prioritised cars by building highway networks and widening roads.</p>
<p>At the beginning of 1970, even though Jakarta’s governor, Ali Sadikin, planned a public transport scheme that focused on trains and large buses, most efforts were still invested in the development of private vehicles. At that time, the New Order regime had a close relationship with highway and middle-class housing developers, two elements of the city that closely related to the use of cars. </p>
<p>As a result, government-run public transportation could not service the needs of Jakarta’s ever-increasing population.</p>
<h2>Market opportunity</h2>
<p>The lack of mass transportation services became an opportunity for thousands of entrepreneurs to venture into the sector.</p>
<p>The number of minibuses skyrocketed in Jakarta first before they spread to surrounding areas. For Jakarta alone, the number of <em>angkot</em> <a href="https://jakarta.bps.go.id/publication/2016/02/29/bafeb8e753144624121e6123/provinsi-dki-jakarta-dalam-angka-2015.html//">increased</a> from 5,000 units in 1968 to 13,500 in 2015.</p>
<p>For both <em>angkot</em> and medium-sized buses, the <a href="https://jakarta.bps.go.id/publication/2016/02/29/bafeb8e753144624121e6123/provinsi-dki-jakarta-dalam-angka-2015.html//">latest data</a> from 2015 show that there are 47,000 operating units in the Greater Jakarta Area (this includes Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang and Bekasi). That number excludes vehicles that operate without permission, known as <em>omprengan</em>.</p>
<p>With the increase in demand for minibus services, the automotive industry has also grown. Small and medium-sized buses are usually assembled from the same frame and machine as conventional cars. This segment makes up a <a href="https://otomotif.kompas.com/read/2016/03/15/165604315/Pasar.Angkot.Menjanjikan.bagi.Tata.Motors">strategic market</a> for Asian car brands.</p>
<p>How minibuses have adapted could also be seen from the changes in its operating area, especially for <em>angkot</em>, <em>omprengan</em> and <em>bemo</em>. Such small vehicles can connect large main roads with rural roads or housing complexes.</p>
<p>The existence of such transportation services is made possible because of capital investment by minibus owners, not because of government support – except for road construction. </p>
<h2>Economic activity is key for marginalised communities</h2>
<p>One fact that influenced the fate of <em>angkot</em> in Jakarta is the number of people whose livelihood depends on it. </p>
<p>In the 1960s and 1970s, most of the <em>oplet</em> business were still controlled by Chinese owners who had dozens of vehicles. Now <em>angkot</em> has become a business field for entrepreneurs of various backgrounds. </p>
<p>A few <em>angkot</em> cooperatives were established by members of the police or military officers as most of them use the profit as extra income or additional pension fund.</p>
<p>However, the business of minibuses is not limited to state employees. Anyone who can afford to buy a vehicle can register it as public transport.</p>
<p>For example, Ratih (not a real name) owns two <em>angkot</em> cars while working at a coffee shop at one of Jakarta’s main terminals. To protect the identities of my informants, I’ve hidden the name of the terminal. Ratih’s husband controls the gambling world at the same terminal, and the <em>angkot</em> they own provides the family’s side income.</p>
<p>From Ratih’s story, <em>angkot</em> is an essential part of economic empowerment efforts for the community. However, as it is considered a side income, business owners tend to see them only as a capital investment and fail to pay attention to safety and quality of service.</p>
<p>The <em>angkot</em> business provides employment to tens of thousands of drivers. There is yet to be an official record of the number of minibus drivers in Jakarta. However, from the number of minibuses in the Greater Jakarta Area, it could be estimated that there are around 94,000 drivers in total, based on the assumption that every car is driven by two drivers. </p>
<p>However, that number could be greater, because of the existence of drivers who personally know and collect their own earnings every day who are known as <em>“batangan”</em> drivers. These drivers can reach up to three people per car. The numbers have also not taken into account freelance drivers employed by <em>“batangan”</em> drivers. </p>
<p>Now the majority of minibus business owners do not drive their own vehicles but hire drivers instead. The drivers mostly work as freelance workers without getting wages. </p>
<p>The work relationship is based on a lease system. Drivers rent the car from the owner by paying daily fees taken from their earnings. Drivers also bear the burden of paying for fuel.</p>
<p>That working pattern certainly is not balanced. The drivers’ days are exhausting and full of uncertainty. If there are no backup drivers, one person can work 15 hours straight. </p>
<p>From their stories, it is understandable that being an <em>angkot</em> driver is not their first choice for a career. Most of them have changed jobs and experienced unemployment. With such an informal working relationship, being an <em>angkot</em> driver is an accessible option for those who are marginalised from the formal job market, despite receiving no security or protection.</p>
<h2>Survival</h2>
<p>Although the minibus business is deeply rooted in the space and society of Jakarta, the last two decades have brought changes that question its function and fate. </p>
<p>The first challenge came up in the late 1990s when motorcycle drivers had spread to every layer of society. The percentage of families that have at least one motorcycle rose from 34% in 2002 to <a href="https://www.google.fr/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=15&ved=2ahUKEwjzgOyR-ZXeAhUDRBoKHVUvD7g4ChAWMAR6BAgFEAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fxa.yimg.com%2Fkq%2Fgroups%2F13372012%2F2070452830%2Fname%2Fjutpi_final_report.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0D7VoNfH8fJecs3KdPbR9e">72%</a> in 2010.</p>
<p>From the perspective of business owners and minibus drivers, motorcycles are cars’ greatest competitor. This is because motorcycles can overtake the market for minibus drivers that comes from weaker economic positions.</p>
<p>Another challenge is transportation policies in an era of reform that focuses on public transport development. </p>
<p>In the last 15 years, public transport in Jakarta has grown exponentially, from the rapid transit bus, <a href="http://transjakarta.co.id/">Transjakarta</a>, to the MRT and LRT networks that are predicted to start operation in 2019. </p>
<p>TransJakarta has stripped the minibus of its title as “king of the roads”.</p>
<p>TransJakarta mostly threatens <em>Metro Mini</em> and <em>Kopaja</em> as most of their routes are now served by TransJakarta buses. <em>Angkot</em> can still monopolise narrower or rural streets and <em>omprengan</em> can adapt more as they are not tied to a route permit.</p>
<p>The government’s attitude towards minibuses has also begun to change.</p>
<p>The waves of protests from drivers and <em>angkot</em> business owners due to the development of the TransJakarta grid have pushed the integration of minibuses with mass transportation networks.</p>
<p>The integration of the <em>Kopaja</em> bus with TransJakarta started in 2015. Such a policy was expanded by the end of former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama’s administration. It was then further extended by the current governor, Anies Baswedan, under his Ok-Trip as well as Jak-Lingko systems. However, those trials are still limited and have met with protests from drivers whose earnings have decreased due to the system.</p>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105357/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rémi Desmoulière has received funding from ENS Lyon, INALCO, CESSMA and the Thiers-Center for Humanist Research Foundation.</span></em></p>Jakarta’s minibuses can survive because of their socio-political functions and relation to the interests of thousands of business owners and workers in the capital.Rémi Desmoulière, Doctorant en géographie, Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (Inalco)Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/974892018-06-01T11:04:07Z2018-06-01T11:04:07Z‘Disneyland for Big Tobacco’: how Indonesia’s lax smoking laws are helping next generation to get hooked<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221157/original/file-20180531-69511-j75arj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Dangerous inhalation.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/black_claw/18931630679/in/photolist-4k4xMs-3ei5nN-LR2nai-3edFsX-7GSbaH-pVz5MM-u9Bk6h-VtTtUK-Q8XxFA-q4J3Kn-5wNA8E-5tk2CY-5tmJQq-8FRdus-9zSqmn-5tj4Ab-5tfVzt-5tjEna-6y97hd-5tJeYz-rysq64-dwhDDd-7GSbb2-vPNSf-3itgN-9cn2CA-JfNm1k-DmNmT-aqQb3a-H7pspD-3itWC-q4srq1-aqSRh1-sW4Sp3-NtT7L7-vrgRM9-vc8yGa-vc15zm-vtzCCK-uQVyev-L1TYW5-MJgrCf-Lwb5Db-qnKwYs-vc13fm-vc8xjk-vrgPgN-svfxRB-9piGmw-5tjhfj">Farhan Perdana</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With more than 260m people, Indonesia is the biggest economy in South-East Asia. The country’s <a href="https://www.indonesia-investments.com/culture/population/item67?">young population</a> – 37% are under the age of 20 – is one of its greatest strengths. But Indonesia’s potential and productivity are being threatened by the number of deaths associated with smoking. </p>
<p>Of the 10% of the world’s smokers <a href="https://seatca.org/dmdocuments/The%20Tobacco%20Control%20Atlas%20ASEAN%20Region%203rd%20Edition%202016.pdf">who live</a> in South-East Asia, half are in Indonesia. It is estimated that smoking-related diseases <a href="https://seatca.org/dmdocuments/The%20Tobacco%20Control%20Atlas%20ASEAN%20Region%203rd%20Edition%202016.pdf">kill nearly 250,000 Indonesians</a> every year. </p>
<p>The 76% of males aged 15+ <a href="https://tobaccoatlas.org/country/indonesia/">who smoke</a> is the highest rate in the world – and the <a href="https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/problem/toll-global/asia/indonesia">next generation</a> show every sign of following in their footsteps. In addition, 20% of 13-15 year olds smoke, which is the highest figure in the region. Even before the age of ten, 20% of children have tried a cigarette – and by the age of 13 it’s more like 90%. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221163/original/file-20180531-69484-k1lfsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221163/original/file-20180531-69484-k1lfsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221163/original/file-20180531-69484-k1lfsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221163/original/file-20180531-69484-k1lfsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221163/original/file-20180531-69484-k1lfsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221163/original/file-20180531-69484-k1lfsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221163/original/file-20180531-69484-k1lfsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221163/original/file-20180531-69484-k1lfsx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fishermen at Bancar in East Java.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/adamcohn/28889840024/in/photolist-4k4xMs-3ei5nN-LR2nai-3edFsX-7GSbaH-pVz5MM-u9Bk6h-VtTtUK-Q8XxFA-q4J3Kn-5wNA8E-5tk2CY-5tmJQq-8FRdus-9zSqmn-5tj4Ab-5tfVzt-5tjEna-6y97hd-5tJeYz-rysq64-dwhDDd-7GSbb2-vPNSf-3itgN-9cn2CA-JfNm1k-DmNmT-aqQb3a-H7pspD-3itWC-q4srq1-aqSRh1-sW4Sp3-NtT7L7-vrgRM9-vc8yGa-vc15zm-vtzCCK-uQVyev-L1TYW5-MJgrCf-Lwb5Db-qnKwYs-vc13fm-vc8xjk-vrgPgN-svfxRB-9piGmw-5tjhfj">Adam Cohn</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Statistics like these explain why Indonesia is the <a href="https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/assets/global/pdfs/en/Global_Cigarette_Industry_pdf.pdf">second biggest</a> market for tobacco in the world after China, <a href="https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/problem/toll-global/asia/indonesia">selling</a> more than 315 billion cigarettes a year. The country <a href="https://seatca.org/dmdocuments/The%20Tobacco%20Control%20Atlas%20ASEAN%20Region%203rd%20Edition%202016.pdf">also exports</a> vastly more cigarettes than it imports. The industry produces <a href="https://www.statista.com/outlook/50010000/120/cigarettes/indonesia#market-revenue">annual sales</a> of over US$21 billion (£16 billion), with growth forecast at around 5% a year. </p>
<p>Tobacco contributes <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-tobacco/indonesia-tobacco-bill-would-open-tap-for-ads-aimed-at-kids-health-official-says-idUSKBN18S47O">approximately</a> 10% of all Indonesian tax revenue and <a href="http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/PubDocsError.jsp?err_msg=Document%20is%20not%20available%20for%20public%20viewing">employs</a> some 2.5m workers in farming and manufacturing. Little wonder the country is <a href="https://asiapacificreport.nz/2016/06/05/indonesia-on-track-to-having-worlds-highest-smoking-rates/">planning to</a> double tobacco production within the next decade. </p>
<h2>Market leaders</h2>
<p>Five players control over three quarters of the market in Indonesia. The leader is HM Sampoerna, 92.5% owned by Philip Morris International – which also makes Marlboro cigarettes. Then come a couple of Indonesian conglomerates: Gudang Garam and Djarum, both of which are known for traditional kretek or clove cigarettes. Fourth is British American Tobacco, with another Indonesian group, Nojorono Tobacco, in fifth (the <a href="https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/problem/toll-global/asia/indonesia">source</a> of these numbers is anti-smoking group Tobacco Free Kids).</p>
<p><strong>Indonesia’s Big Five</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221429/original/file-20180602-142089-1vj3vxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221429/original/file-20180602-142089-1vj3vxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221429/original/file-20180602-142089-1vj3vxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221429/original/file-20180602-142089-1vj3vxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221429/original/file-20180602-142089-1vj3vxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=322&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221429/original/file-20180602-142089-1vj3vxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221429/original/file-20180602-142089-1vj3vxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221429/original/file-20180602-142089-1vj3vxl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/problem/toll-global/asia/indonesia">Tobacco Free Kids</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These companies have long had significant political and financial influence in Indonesia. The government consults the industry over proposed changes to tobacco policy, but the rules don’t often seem to be tightened up. </p>
<p>Indonesia is the only country in Asia that <a href="http://www.who.int/fctc/signatories_parties/en/">has not</a> signed and ratified the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (FCTC) – even China is on board and making steady progress. The framework
includes restrictions on the extent to which tobacco companies can lobby governments, as well as sales to children and passive smoking. It also recognises that a complete ban on tobacco marketing activities is the most effective way of reducing youth smoking uptake. </p>
<p>The Indonesian government <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/03/16/jokowi-opts-to-kill-tobacco-bill.html">believes that</a> stricter tobacco controls could damage the industry, citing concerns for farmers and other tobacco workers. It is certainly true that the <a href="https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/28582">majority of</a> tobacco workers are vulnerable and live in poverty, but this industry also supports four Indonesian conglomerates whose owners have a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/indonesia-billionaires/list/#tab:overall">combined net worth</a> of around $43 billion. </p>
<h2>Youth targeting</h2>
<p>While the majority of South-East Asian countries – led by Singapore, Brunei and Thailand – are <a href="https://seatca.org/dmdocuments/The%20Tobacco%20Control%20Atlas%20ASEAN%20Region%203rd%20Edition%202016.pdf">making good progress</a> towards a comprehensive ban on tobacco marketing, Indonesia remains lenient. This has earned the country <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3563903/">the nickname</a>, the “tobacco industry’s Disneyland”. </p>
<p>It feels particularly appropriate considering how many children <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/30/health/chain-smoking-children-tobacco-indonesia/index.html">get attracted</a> to smoking. Individual cigarettes are sold as cheaply as $0.07 each. A pack of 20 Marlboro can be bought for $1.55, compared to around $20 in Australia. Indonesia’s laws state that cigarettes can only be sold to and consumed by adults aged 18 and above, but no penalties are imposed for retailers who sell them to youngsters. </p>
<p><strong>Tobacco consumption, select countries</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221176/original/file-20180531-69521-o24ny1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221176/original/file-20180531-69521-o24ny1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/221176/original/file-20180531-69521-o24ny1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221176/original/file-20180531-69521-o24ny1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221176/original/file-20180531-69521-o24ny1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221176/original/file-20180531-69521-o24ny1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221176/original/file-20180531-69521-o24ny1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/221176/original/file-20180531-69521-o24ny1.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=346&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://tobaccoatlas.org">Tobacco Atlas</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indonesia is the only country in the region that still allows direct tobacco advertising. To reduce exposure to children and teenagers, advertising is restricted on TV and radio to between 9.30pm and 5am. But youngsters are still exposed through billboards, roadside stalls, music concerts, sporting events and the internet. There are shops and restaurants branded with tobacco advertising everywhere. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/afb09252-b2fb-11e2-95b3-00144feabdc0">tobacco</a> companies <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/09/how-children-around-the-world-are-exposed-to-cigarette-advertising">deny</a> that their <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/big-tobacco-targeting-youth-indonesia/story?id=16712181">advertising</a> targets under-18s, but I don’t find this very convincing. The messaging uses themes that are likely to be very attractive to young people, such as humour, adventure, bravery and success. The hip young designers in this advert for the Gudang Garam’s GG Mild brand are a good example:</p>
<figure>
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<p>This advert for Sampoerna’s A Mild seems like a clarion call to the younger generation, with its mopeds, guitars and street acrobatics:</p>
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<p>One more example is Djarum’s LA Bold advertising. Melding shadow boxing, young men in sharp suits and fawning girls, the voiceover declares: “I rule the world because I live Bold.” </p>
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<p>The industry also positions itself as integral to society via corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sponsorship. Much of this directly involves young people. Sampoerna has developed its own educational pathway called <a href="http://sampoernaschools.com">Sampoerna School System</a>, which distributes scholarships, supports underprivileged schools and trains teachers and principals. </p>
<p>Djarum sponsors Djarum Superliga Badminton and <a href="http://www.djarumfoundation.org/program/">establishes</a> sports training academies for young talents. Gudang Garam actively sponsors events and festivals which target digital natives, referring to them as “<a href="http://growinc.id/portfolio/generation-g-style-new-generation-campaign-case-study/">Generation G</a>”. </p>
<p>In South-East Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam have all banned tobacco companies from using their CSR activities to attract publicity, while Brunei has banned them from such activities altogether. Indonesia has a comparable ban on tobacco CSR publicity, but such activities are still well publicised in the media and the government <a href="http://www.djarum.com/brands/domestic-brands/djarum-super/">endorses</a> and <a href="https://ppksampoerna.com/en/kegiatan-kami/ppk-sampoerna-expo/">even participates</a> in them. </p>
<p>In short, Indonesia has a big problem with tobacco. In particular, the government needs to urgently do more to protect children, since they’re not experienced enough to make well-informed choices. There needs to be a complete ban on tobacco advertising, along with stricter measures around sales – and these need rigorously enforced. Tobacco-related sponsorship and CSR must also be banned – whatever contribution they make to society is outweighed by the harm. </p>
<p>At a time when most countries in the region are moving in the right direction over tobacco, Indonesia urgently needs to follow suit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/97489/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nathalia Tjandra receives funding from the Carnegie Trust. </span></em></p>While many of its Asian neighbours are striving to get smoking under control, Indonesia is the stubborn exception.Nathalia Tjandra, Lecturer in Marketing, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/950322018-04-18T12:04:34Z2018-04-18T12:04:34ZCan Grab and Gojek drivers in Indonesia build a solid union?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/214846/original/file-20180414-105522-8qyqzv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C995%2C663&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Online drivers work independently. But to improve their working conditions, drivers need to organise collectively.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">findracadabra/www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Motorcycle taxi drivers for online ride-hailing services recently rallied in Jakarta demanding that the government protect the interests of workers engaging in precarious work in the growing sector. </p>
<p>The protest was held a day after <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2018/03/27/grabs-acquisition-of-uber-how-it-will-affect-indonesian-users.html">Malaysia-based ride-hailing firm Grab announced it’s taking over Uber’s Southeast Asian operation</a>. The acquisition makes Grab and Indonesian-based Gojek the leading players in the Indonesian market. </p>
<p>The drivers <a href="https://tirto.id/ribuan-pengemudi-ojek-online-demo-di-depan-istana-negara-cGN7">want</a> the government to regulate ride charges, insurance and other matters related to their work. They also demanded the government push companies to set a higher basic tariff and increase drivers’ income.</p>
<p>But their efforts to build an organised movement to advocate for their interests might run into formidable challenges, as the labour force in the sharing economy is fragmented. Workers work independently and are physically separated from each other. Furthermore, the drivers’ protests occur in a context where labour and civil society organisations are struggling with the legacies of decades of demobilisation under authoritarianism.</p>
<p>Currently, apps-facilitated ride-hailing services run by well-funded start-ups are regulated under a 2017 decree released by the Transportation Ministry. This regulation enables the government to set a price cap on these services. Vehicles are now subject to minimum engine capacity and roadworthiness standards. </p>
<p>Under law no. 22/2009, however, <a href="https://tirto.id/tuntutan-pengemudi-ojek-daring-terganjal-uu-lalu-lintas-cAzv">motorcycles cannot be classified as public transportation</a>. Therefore, the operation of these ride-hailing motorcycle taxis and their drivers’ interests remains unregulated.</p>
<h2>Gig workers collective action</h2>
<p>The rise of ride-hailing services in big cities in Indonesia is part of a global growth trend of so-called <a href="http://www.wired.co.uk/article/what-is-the-gig-economy-meaning-definition-why-is-it-called-gig-economy">“gig”, “sharing” and “on-demand” economy</a>. The companies that are creating digital applications to bring various services – from transportation and cleaning to running errands – to customers rely on a temporary and flexible workforce. </p>
<p>In big cities around the world, the rise of the on-demand companies, such as Uber, has prompted <a href="http://prospect.org/article/demand-and-demanding-their-rights">drivers to take collective action</a>. </p>
<p>In the US, protests against Uber have been mostly small and sporadic. These have <a href="http://irle.berkeley.edu/labor-platforms-and-gig-work/">yet to lead to the sustained pressures needed to evoke a successful response to drivers’ demands</a>. Drivers have thus been represented by both traditional unions and alternative labor organizations in courts, legislative arena, and in private consultation with Uber</p>
<p>In Indonesia, ride-hailing drivers have also formed associations to represent their interests as a collective. They have taken to the streets to voice their concerns over <a href="https://www.techinasia.com/gojek-lowers-prices-spur-demand-drivers-protest">low pay</a> and companies’ <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/10/03/hundreds-of-go-jek-drivers-protest-unfair-policy.html">unfair policies</a>. </p>
<h2>Challenges in building a solid union</h2>
<p>The drivers work independently. Yet, collective grievances associated with payment and working conditions create the need for collective organisation. The recent drivers protests might indicate a move towards <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:fDdhoFaPhUwJ:www.isrsf.org/files/download/442+&cd=3&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au">collective resistance against exploitative working condition</a> and towards <a href="http://www.insideindonesia.org/the-go-jek-effect">collective bargaining on wages and working conditions</a>.</p>
<p>Whether the collective action can be transformed into a solid union, with a strategy and agenda able to influence progressive labour reform, remains to be seen.</p>
<p>Several social conditions that may challenge the drivers’ efforts to transform collective action into a solid union. </p>
<p><strong>1. Majority of online drivers do not feel exploited</strong> </p>
<p>Under the flexible employment system, the drivers are hired under short-term or one-off contracts. Furthermore, the advanced use of digital apps allows automated online control over work processes. This maximises workers’ productivity. </p>
<p>Many of the drivers enjoy the flexibility and freedom and willingly consent to following the logic of capital. Although thousands of online motorcycle taxi drivers join rallies to protest, studies on <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1gQfkoFPIosTzNiS01vX3J5UnM/view">Gojek</a> and <a href="https://www.grab.com/id/en/press/consumers-drivers/studi-menunjukkan-grab-mendorong-dampak-positif-para-penumpang-dan-mitra-pengemudinya/">Grab</a> drivers show that the majority of them are satisfied with their income and working condition. </p>
<p>The work process in the gig economy lures drivers to be self-reliant in maximising their productivity and earning more income. For many of them, consolidating a solid union with a clear strategy and agenda might consume too much of the time and energy they allocate to work. While drivers may unite with each other to address short-term problems, it would be more challenging for them to establish a solid union.</p>
<p><strong>2. Driving for additional income</strong> </p>
<p>Studies on <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1gQfkoFPIosTzNiS01vX3J5UnM/view">Gojek</a> drivers show that many of them are not entirely dependent on incomes from the online ride-hailing service. With the <a href="https://kevinhewison.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/kalleberg-and-hewison-2015.pdf">pervasiveness of the informal sector</a> and the <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/07/07/social-security-all-workers.html">unreliability of the social security schemes</a>, it is not unusual for Indonesians to engage in multiple income-earning activities. </p>
<p>One of the requirements to establish a strong union is a sense of social solidarity. This may be challenged by the fact that online ride-hailing drivers are fragmented across different means of survival. Most Gojek drivers have other jobs. They join the online platform to earn extra income.</p>
<p><strong>3. Traditional labour unions ineffective in representing gig workers</strong> </p>
<p>Support from broader organised labour and social movements may leverage the impact of the drivers’ protest and support their transformation into a solid union. The Federation of Indonesian Metal Workers Union <a href="https://fspmi.or.id/setelah-gojek-grab-dan-uber-bergabung-dengan-fspmi.html">has recruited</a> online ride-hailing drivers as members. Yet unions have had limited infrastructures to organise outside their traditional base, the industrial workers.</p>
<p>This is partly due to <a href="http://www.insideindonesia.org/labour-takes-a-citizenship-approach">decades of demobilisation of the organised labour movement and broader civil society organisations</a> under the authoritarian regime. It has become even more challenging to organise workers now that the employment system has become increasingly flexible.</p>
<p>Even in the US, where unions and alternative labour groups have represented the atomised ride-hailing drivers in the legislative and judicial arenas and in negotiation with the companies, <a href="http://irle.berkeley.edu/labor-platforms-and-gig-work/">little has been accomplished</a>.</p>
<p><strong>4. Limited engagement by civil society organisations</strong> </p>
<p>Society-based organisations appear to be detached from the drivers’ protests. They seem to be absent from workers’ collective action.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, workers in the informal sector, from which the online taxi services recruit most of their drivers, have been the target of mobilisation by different actors for various ends, including <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00472336.2016.1197959">violent groups voicing reactionary agendas</a>. This could further hinder the consolidation of a solid union.</p>
<h2>What next?</h2>
<p>Online ride-hailing drivers’ protests represent the seed of collective organisation. Yet, as work is increasingly fragmented and atomised, and labour and civil society organisations are struggling with the legacies of authoritarianism.
it will not be easy to transform the sporadic protests into a solid union.</p>
<p>We need to think of ways for the organised labour and broader civil society movement to strategically connect themselves with the drivers’ protests, while acknowledging the formidable challenges.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/95032/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Para penulis tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi di luar afiliasi akademis yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Drivers for online ride-hailing services face several social conditions that may challenge their efforts to transform collective action into a solid union.Diatyka Widya Permata Yasih, Lecturer, Department of Sociology, Universitas IndonesiaAndi Rahman Alamsyah, Lecturer in Sociology, Universitas IndonesiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/916582018-03-19T09:30:28Z2018-03-19T09:30:28ZWhy the rich in Jakarta have better access to water than the poor – it’s not the piped network<p>In Jakarta, the rich have much better access to clean water than the poor. Residents in the city’s business districts or in rich neighbourhoods have much more reliable access to water than those living in poor neighbourhoods. </p>
<p>Inequalities in access to water between the rich and the poor deepens social inequalities. Access to water can have effects on people’s health, education and incomes. Reducing inequalities in different social groups’ access to water is now part of <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdg6">the global Sustainable Development Goals</a>. </p>
<p>What are the causes of inequalities in access to water in Jakarta? </p>
<h2>Piped network the culprit?</h2>
<p>In trying to answer this, scholars, journalists and activists often pinpoint the city’s centralised piped water network as the culprit behind water inequalities. </p>
<p>Scholars describe the piped network as the physical manifestation of the social relations of power structuring access. They argue that <a href="https://books.google.nl/books/about/Splintering_Urbanism.html?id=zCKNS5Yn4pkC&redir_esc=y">piped infrastructure “fragments” the city</a>, hardwiring its spatial inequality. </p>
<p>But, while it is true that the poorest residents of the city are not connected, neither are the richest. Middle–income and lower-middle-income residents represent the largest consumer groups for both Palyja and Aetra, the two water operators in Jakarta, according to 2014 and 2015 data from Jakarta’s water regulator.</p>
<p><a href="https://koran.tempo.co/konten/2018/01/31/426966/Konsumsi-Air-Tanah-Jakarta-Stabil-Tinggi">More than 60% of Jakarta’s residents rely on groundwater</a>. This provides nearly two-thirds of the city’s water consumption, around 630 million cubic metres out of 1 billion m3/year. </p>
<p>Piped water has never provided the majority of water for the majority of Jakarta’s residents. It is almost always used in combination with other sources, either groundwater or bottled water. </p>
<h2>Beyond piped network</h2>
<p>Examining the role of centralised piped networks in producing inequalities in access to urban water supply has been a dominant question within academic analysis concerned with social inequalities in the city. But the theoretical frameworks used to answer questions of water, urbanization, and inequalities are often derived from experiences in Europe – where centralised piped networks are generally the dominant, if not only, water supply in cities. </p>
<p>To explain inequalities in access to water in Jakarta, examining the flows of groundwater, wastewater and piped water can provide a better answer than looking at the fragmentation of the piped water network.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-2427.12582/full">our paper</a> we examined the connections between the various water flows and usage and their impacts on different social groups. We found that there is a connection between over-abstraction of deep groundwater in rich neighbourhoods and salinisation of shallow groundwater in poor neighbourhoods. </p>
<p>Powerful pumps in rich neighbourhoods draw huge amounts of deep groundwater. This leads to land subsidence. When the ground sinks, the risk of flooding increases. Whenever flooding occurs, floodwater and wastewater contaminate piped and groundwater supplies in low-lying coastal areas. </p>
<p>The result is that the city’s poorest residents, living on the most marginal land, experience higher exposure to flooding and poorer quality water. At the same time, they often don’t have enough money to invest in household water treatment technologies or to buy packaged drinking water.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, wealthy households and businesses often choose to disconnect themselves from the piped network system when they set up powerful pumps to extract deep groundwater for their own water supply. </p>
<p>The ability of wealthy households and businesses to opt out of centralised water supply limits the possibility to cross-subsidise either water consumption or water connections for low-income areas and households. </p>
<p>Jakarta’s experience shows that inequalities in access to water go far beyond the presence or absence of a piped network. </p>
<h2>Europe is not the world</h2>
<p>In order to develop explanations that better reflect the experiences of a broader range of cities, the experiences of European cities must not be placed in the <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781444395105.ch46/summary">centre of theorisation</a>. </p>
<p>In looking beyond piped water networks to understand how water inequalities happen, we joined a movement in the scientific world “to world”. Across science, “to world” theory means to challenge the assumed universality of theories derived from experiences in Europe. </p>
<p>Our theoretical intervention is academic, but the consequences and concerns driving our analysis are not. We found the poor are more exposed to risks of environmental hazards in cities in the developing world in which neither water nor nature are wholly contained by infrastructure. </p>
<p>This means that to reduce inequalities in access to water we need to look beyond the network to develop more meaningful policy responses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91658/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Furlong menerima dana dari social sciences and humanities research council of Canada dan program Canada Research Chairs program. Ia anggota Fair Vote Canada.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Kooy tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>While it is true that the poorest residents of the city are not connected to the piped water network, neither are the richest. Then what causes water inequalities?Michelle Kooy, Associate Professor of the Politics of Urban Water, IHE DelftKathryn Furlong, Associate Professor of Geography, Université de MontréalLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/912132018-03-16T09:46:14Z2018-03-16T09:46:14ZThree scenarios show we have to think carefully about ethics in designing smart cities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/206535/original/file-20180215-131016-vqgghs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jakarta's traffic system is one of many facets of the city that could be improved by smart cities technologies, but at what cost? </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/bFjise">Vasenka Photography/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To improve cities, governments are increasingly promoting the use of technology and data-driven decision-making. They decide how technologies and Big Data are being used or deployed in creating smart cities, with the help of academics who collect and interpret data, design new city ideas and newer technologies for cities. </p>
<p>Data harnessed from networked objects that citizens wear or use daily can ease our lives. But it’s possible that the uses of Big Data jeopardise citizens, such as in the scenarios we present below. </p>
<h2>1. Longer commute for low-class workers</h2>
<p>Imagine this: A traffic system manages a city’s rush hour, handling thousands of traffic lights, public transport commutes and pedestrian signals. Meanwhile, an AI system uses real-time data drawn from hundreds of thousands of sensors on vehicles and buses. With help from infrastructure like light poles, the optimal flow of traffic is calculated based on the number of vehicles and people in the system. </p>
<p>Reducing commute times and improving productivity is the stated end goal of city governments. Who could argue with that?</p>
<p>But linking traffic data, geographic data and economic performance creates another scenario. If the system increases economic performance, is it any wonder it prioritises higher-paying jobs linked to more expensive suburbs neighbouring the city? </p>
<p>Low-paid commuters contribute less financially to a city’s economy, so a highly paid executive getting a quicker ride to work makes brutal sense. But the system introduces a bias: public transport suddenly takes a little longer for a clerical worker.</p>
<h2>2. Park bench meter?</h2>
<p>The humble park bench presents another ethical dilemma for city planners. We’ve been paying for car parking in cities for decades. Now that we can live-track people in fine detail, the possibility of micro-charging for public amenities creates an opportunity for new revenue streams.</p>
<p>Think about paying a few cents for time spent resting on a park bench – a parking meter for people. This obviously discourages the positive attributes of city living for avid park users. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210705/original/file-20180316-104645-skvrol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210705/original/file-20180316-104645-skvrol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210705/original/file-20180316-104645-skvrol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210705/original/file-20180316-104645-skvrol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210705/original/file-20180316-104645-skvrol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210705/original/file-20180316-104645-skvrol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/210705/original/file-20180316-104645-skvrol.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">In the future, will we have to pay to sit on a park bench?</span>
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<p>Yet, as an example of “data-driven” governance, it plausibly shines a light on the already feasible potential for economic disparity.</p>
<h2>3. Health and the consent of citizens</h2>
<p>Big Data can also be used to inform city design and planning to reduce health disparities. Public surveillance systems can connect geo-data with health services data to attend to populations that need urgent help. </p>
<p>But there are major ethical challenges that centre on fears about the privacy of information that is provided. The perception that data will be paternally used in targeted community interventions is also an issue.</p>
<p>At the Indonesian-Australian Digital Forum in Jakarta in January, participants analysed the sustainability of using citizen reports to collect data on malaria. This information sharing can potentially benefit communities by targeting public health services in areas of need. </p>
<p>But it also creates stigma and privacy concerns when individuals are known within their community as disease carriers. Is there any opportunity to consider a person’s consent?</p>
<p>Big Data certainly creates opportunities to reduce health disparities. But how many benevolent government interventions engage targeted citizens in the development process? </p>
<h2>Focusing on the citizen</h2>
<p>The examples we use above are very near-term realities. The possibilities and problems of Big Data mean designers require a new type of intelligence that exists between technology and the humanities. </p>
<p>As technologies become more sophisticated the designer holds a key role in customising such concepts for mass use. Additionally, as the pendulum swings from technological solutions towards the citizen’s experiences, the variations in different countries’ political and cultural systems will become more pronounced. The old adage that “all politics is local” will be reinforced.</p>
<p>But in a Big Data environment, the tendency to average out all those local specificities is magnified by generic technology approaches to complex cultural and contextual problems. </p>
<p>Governments should think about and resolve ethical questions in the design of smart cities. City planners should ensure that the technologies deployed do not take away citizens’ privacy and that personal data are not used against them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91213/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Para penulis tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi di luar afiliasi akademis yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Governments are using Big Data to design improvements and upgrades of cities. But ethical questions need to be considered, lest we end up jeopardising citizens’ privacy or deepen social inequalities.Anthony Burke, Associate Dean International and Engagement, Faculty of Design Architecture and Building, University of Technology SydneyPrasuna Reddy, Associate Dean (International and Advancement) and Professor of Mental Health and Implementation Science, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/913342018-02-12T10:06:54Z2018-02-12T10:06:54ZLGBT and social inclusion in Indonesia: what the surveys say?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205228/original/file-20180207-74479-1fztda7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It appears from the survey data that LGBT people are still socially excluded at the community level, but more socially included in the family.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/682419157?src=91OVrf5YWH1enacsmgH0Dw-1-14&size=huge_jpg">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The onslaught against LGBT people in Indonesia is rising again these days, repeating the heated debate that took place in 2016. This was triggered in December last year by the <a href="http://www.mahkamahkonstitusi.go.id/public/content/persidangan/putusan/46_PUU-XIV_2016.pdf">Constitutional Court’s rejection of a petition</a> that calls to outlaw premarital sex and same-sex behaviour. The effort to outlaw these sexual conducts has now moved into the parliament, who are <a href="http://www.mediaindonesia.com/news/read/137428/dpr-didesak-rampungkan-ruu-kuhp/2017-12-21">deliberating the revised Criminal Code</a>. </p>
<p>Media coverage, has again, highlighted LGBT as a threat, moral degradation, sinful and <a href="http://nasional.republika.co.id/berita/nasional/hukum/18/01/26/p369hf330-pengamat-masyarakat-lgbt-patut-dihukum">punishable</a>. In the midst of the anti-homosexuality “campaign”, on January 25th, 2018 a <a href="http://www.saifulmujani.com/blog/2018/01/25/smrc-mayoritas-rakyat-indonesia-nyatakan-orang-lbgt-punya-hak-hidup-di-indonesia">national survey</a> was released on society’s attitudes toward LGBT. Conducted by Saiful Mujani Research & Consulting (SMRC), the survey is perhaps the first of its kind. Using multistage random sampling, 1,220 respondents were interviewed. </p>
<p><strong>Some of the main findings include:</strong></p>
<p>• 58.3% of the respondents know of or have heard about LGBT </p>
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<p><strong>From those that know what LGBT is:</strong></p>
<p>• the majority (87%) feel LGBT are a threat</p>
<p>• 79% feel uncomfortable having LGBT as their neighbour</p>
<p>• About 46% can accept if a family member is LGBT</p>
<p>• About 58% perceive that LGBT has the right to life in the country</p>
<p>• 50% perceive that the state should protect the LGBT.</p>
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<h2>More accepted in families</h2>
<p>In general, the survey shows a degree of social inclusion among Indonesian society towards LGBT. Social inclusion is a process of efforts to improve participation of disadvantaged individuals and groups in the society. It includes enhancing opportunities, providing access to resources, social acceptance and respecting rights. </p>
<p>It seems that LGBT is still socially excluded at the community level, but more socially included in the family. The survey results also show that perceptions towards LGBT people in society are not always negative. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, it is unclear of what is meant by the “LGBT threat” in this survey. What kind of threat that people feel about LGBT? Considering the ongoing debates on LGBT, I suspect this so-called “LGBT threat” is perceived as a moral threat and LGBT-as-a-disease. </p>
<p>In addition, the term LGBT has several meanings to general population. Firstly, LGBT often refers to homosexuality. Secondly, it is associated with physical appearance such as effeminate men, tomboys or cross-dressing, particularly waria - transgender women. Thirdly, LGBT is sometimes believed to be “contagious”, like a disease. The visibility of waria, to a certain extent, creates less stigma. However, they also often have a low social status (sex worker, street singer, hair-dresser) and therefore waria regularly experience humiliation.</p>
<h2>Different survey, different results</h2>
<p>A 2012 survey on stigma and social inclusion to gay and waria, which I conducted with two colleagues from La Trobe University and is yet to be published, had rather different results. Conducted in Jakarta, Makassar and Surabaya, we interviewed 611 people in public spaces such as terminals, parks and malls. Around 40% of the respondents, who knew any gay/waria, felt uncomfortable if a family member is gay/waria. Yet, about 22% of those who knew any gay/waria and 55% of those who did not felt uncomfortable living next door to gay/waria. </p>
<p>These results are significantly different from the SMRC survey. However, the latter survey captures the general societal attitudes which appear to be changing towards LGBT. It reveals that social exclusion of LGBT is increasing, particularly at the community level - as shown by the low degree of acceptance to having an LGBT neighbour.</p>
<p>It is important to highlight our 2012 survey and interviews with key informants, supported a <a href="https://www.facinghistory.org/sounds-change/gordon-allports-contact-hypothesis">“basic contact hypothesis”</a>. This is where knowing a gay man or a waria is related to a more positive and human response to them. Of those who know any people who are gay or waria, about 60% can accept if a family member is gay or waria. However, this finding is quite different with the results of the recent SMRC survey. </p>
<p>Some of our data suggests that rather than empathising with the disadvantage experienced by gay men and waria, the more common response was one of unreflective pity. Key informants used pity as a demonstration of their concern, but this inevitably leads to greater marginalisation rather than greater participation and inclusion. It also reinforces the notion that gay and waria – and LGBT in general - cannot truly be understood from the outside.</p>
<p>The SMRC survey on LGBT is an important effort to understand the perceptions of Indonesian society. Regular and more rigorous surveying is crucial to capture the dynamics of people’s attitudes toward LGBT. While there is a lot in this data which is worrying, it also indicates a lot of goodwill and optimism. Furthermore, from our study, most of those interviewed genuinely wanted the best for these communities, but few had access to realistic and productive models for achieving greater social inclusion.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91334/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Irwan Martua Hidayana receives funding from National AIDS Commission. He is affiliated with Suara Kita as member of Advisory Board. </span></em></p>Perceptions in Indonesia towards LGBT as revealed in a national survey.Irwan Martua Hidayana, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Universitas IndonesiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/910102018-02-09T10:23:48Z2018-02-09T10:23:48ZHow to use the power of urban planning to tackle inequality<p>Income inequality creates both spatial and social divides and shows itself within cities in many ways. Gated communities in Indonesia have become a glaring example. However, legislation and urban planning can help bridge these divides and reduce inequality. </p>
<p>“Inclusionary planning instruments” are designed to do just that. But to be effective they need to be strongly enforced. </p>
<p>In Indonesia, there are two instruments that have the potential to create more inclusive societies. But power differences between rich developers and the urban poor, lack of expertise in how to implement inclusionary planning, and even insufficient awareness of relevant instruments, have hindered enforcement. </p>
<h2>Rising inequality globally</h2>
<p>A rise in inequality globally has been pointed out over the last five years by several organisations. Oxfam International has just published a <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/bp-reward-work-not-wealth-220118-summ-en.pdf">report</a> on inequality that highlights a significant difference in wages. </p>
<p>Between 1980 and 2016, the top 1% of the world population captured 27% of the total world income growth. The bottom 50% received only 12% of the income growth, according to the <a href="http://wir2018.wid.world">World Inequality Report 2018</a>. </p>
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<p>Indonesia is not immune to these global trends; both income and wealth inequality are rising in the country. The Gini index for Indonesia (a coefficient between 0-1 used to measure income inequality – the closer to 1, the more unequal) increased from 0.31 in 1990 (UNDP, 1990) to 0.41 in 2015. </p>
<p>What’s more, according to <a href="https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/towards-more-equal-indonesia">Oxfam</a>, wealth inequality has increased to a level where the four richest men in the country have more wealth than the poorest 100 million people.</p>
<p>Inequality is one of our main concerns if we want to have harmonious and just societies. The mainstream international development agenda recognises this and the <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/sdgs">2015 Sustainable Development Goals</a> include a goal (SDG10) to “reduce inequality within and among countries”. </p>
<h2>Inequality in cities</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204204/original/file-20180131-131724-iyzuej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204204/original/file-20180131-131724-iyzuej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204204/original/file-20180131-131724-iyzuej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204204/original/file-20180131-131724-iyzuej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204204/original/file-20180131-131724-iyzuej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204204/original/file-20180131-131724-iyzuej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204204/original/file-20180131-131724-iyzuej.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sustainable Development Goal 10: Reduce inequality within and between countries.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TGG_Icon_Color_10.png">Global Goals org/The Global Goals Initiative</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Income inequality manifests itself in cities. We can see clear differences between different social groups in terms of access to housing and basic services. </p>
<p>Houses for upper-middle-class families in Indonesia are spacious, built with good-quality materials and located in neighbourhoods with good services and infrastructure. In the case of gated communities, there are also security devices in place. </p>
<p>Conversely, poor housing lacks appropriate structural conditions. There is overcrowding, often with one family living in a single room. And there is no sanitation and access to basic services. </p>
<p>Gated communities are, especially in the Global South, the main housing option for upper-income groups. The rich justify living in gated communities to reduce insecurity and fear of crime. However, belonging and exclusion of the “unwanted” people are strong reasons behind living in closed enclaves. </p>
<p>Even when poor and rich groups might co-exist in the same territory they do not interact with each other, except for some formal work exchange between employer and employee, where there are strong power relations at play.</p>
<p>Residents’ access to services and infrastructure is also divided along lines of wealth. This creates patterns of “splintering urbanism”, reflecting the unequal distribution of services and infrastructure in the territory. </p>
<h2>Indonesia’s planning instruments</h2>
<p>Inclusionary planning regulations can serve to reduce the gap between rich and poor, including disparities in the services and infrastructure available to them. These instruments require private developers to incorporate social housing or/and services and infrastructure for less advantaged groups when building housing for upper-income groups. </p>
<p>Indonesia has two potentially inclusionary planning instruments for new private residential developments. The first is the “1.2.3 Ratio” scheme and is included in national regulation. It says that for each house built for high-income residents, private developers should also build two houses for middle-income families and three for low-income families. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204215/original/file-20180131-131711-5zxp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/204215/original/file-20180131-131711-5zxp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204215/original/file-20180131-131711-5zxp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204215/original/file-20180131-131711-5zxp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204215/original/file-20180131-131711-5zxp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1229&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204215/original/file-20180131-131711-5zxp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1229&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/204215/original/file-20180131-131711-5zxp5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1229&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Inclusionary planning instrument ‘1.2.3 Ratio’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Conversation Indonesia</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second instrument is called “socialisation”, included as a stage of the Environmental Impact Assessment. The assessment is required when seeking planning permission for a new housing project. The “socialisation stage” requires developers that plan to build a project in an already urbanised area to obtain permission from existing residents for the project to go ahead. </p>
<p>Both instruments represent attempts by the government to reduce inequalities in the cities and to enforce some sort of “planning gain”. These could be seen as a positive step towards redistribution, with incredible potential to create positive change in Indonesian cities. </p>
<p>However, our research data from Jakarta and Yogyakarta show that “Ratio 1.2.3” is hardly being enforced. Land is scarce in many Indonesian cities and it is not profitable for the private sector to build houses for middle- and lower-income families. Additionally, many government officers responsible for the “Ratio 1.2.3” application are unclear on the enforcement mechanism. </p>
<p>In the case of “socialisation”, it has become a very limited process. It has turned into economic negotiations between powerful private developers and less powerful local residents who live close to the proposed project. The latter are usually represented by the neighbourhood association leaders. </p>
<p>In the best situations, the local communities manage to obtain a few new sources of employment, as security guards, cleaners, gardeners or builders. </p>
<p>They may also receive some funding for annual community events, such as the Independence Day celebration. The local roads and mosque might get spruced up. </p>
<p>But these benefits are not enough to reduce the gap between the two groups, nor will they encourage any sort of social interactions between new and old residents. </p>
<p>The lack of enforcement of “Ratio 1.2.3” and the limited scope of the “socialisation” process are missed opportunities for Indonesian cities. These instruments have the potential to decrease urban income inequality by “forcing” those who have more money to contribute to the public good for the benefit of poorer families. </p>
<h2>How to get more out of inclusionary planning</h2>
<p>To improve the benefits from these inclusionary planning instruments, the government should: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>develop clearer and realistic guidelines and instruments that can be applied</p></li>
<li><p>establish clearer mechanisms for public officers to enforce these instruments </p></li>
<li><p>make society more aware of these instruments and, in particular, of the potential benefits of more harmonious and just cities. </p></li>
</ol>
<h2>Rising inequality globally</h2>
<p>How to combat the inequality gap is often a heated topic for governments. International organisations say that while world leaders now acknowledge inequality, not enough is being done to efficiently reduce it. </p>
<p>Other measures to reduce inequality include more progressive tax systems, as suggested in the latest World Inequality Report. Under this system, people who earn more also contribute more towards public services and higher public. This covers spending to provide education, health care and social protection for all. Policies for equal salaries between female and male workers are also promoted as key to reducing inequality.</p>
<p>Considering the scale of inequality, and the urgency of the problem, inclusionary planning instruments are valuable mechanisms. These should be revisited to ensure the full benefits are realised.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91010/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sonia Roitman receives funding from ARC. </span></em></p>Amid rising inequality, two inclusionary planning instruments are at work to combat it in Indonesia. But without better enforcement, their full benefits will not be realisedSonia Roitman, Senior lecturer in Development Planning, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/893202018-02-08T11:10:41Z2018-02-08T11:10:41ZJakarta’s plan to get more public power in water sector might not work well<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/205241/original/file-20180207-74479-csuo6c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Only 70% of Indonesians have access to potable water.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The recent Supreme Court <a href="https://putusan.mahkamahagung.go.id/putusan/downloadpdf/0c9d71c66698559698196882e059371c/pdf">decision</a> prioritising human rights and the state’s control over water sources seems to be “fresh air” for universal water access in Jakarta. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a complete reversal from privatisation.</p>
<p>Despite the court declaration that <a href="http://megapolitan.kompas.com/read/2017/10/11/12313091/ma-perintahkan-stop-kebijakan-swastanisasi-air-di-dki">Jakarta’s administration has gone beyond the law by entering into an agreement</a> with the water corporations, the Court hasn’t issued a clear order to cancel the agreement. Consequently, a “full remunicipalisation” is unlikely to happen until the contract expires in 2023. </p>
<p>The ruling did, however, pressure public water company PAM Jaya into an “internal restructure” of existing contracts. The restructure will set new contracts for Jakarta’s two private pipe operators: Palyja and Aetra. PAM Jaya’s Director, Erlan Hidayat, said this will be <a href="http://www.harianumum.com/berita/detail/3902/Maret-2018-Restrukturisasi-PKS-PAM-Jaya-dengan-Palyja-dan-Aetra-Rampung">complete in March 2018</a>. <a href="http://www.pamjaya.co.id/detail//951/2030-dki-terlayani-air-bersih">PAM Jaya will take over raw water provision and customer billing</a> while the operators will handle water treatment and the process of pipe installation.</p>
<p>But, <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/09/26/jakarta-reclaim-parts-tap-water-operation.html">the restructure is minor</a> as the public company is only partially managing the water sector. It will still have to pay the operator’s production costs, the most expensive part of water service provision.</p>
<p>Additionally, Jakarta’s governor, Anies Baswedan, hasn’t revealed any clear plan for improving water access despite promising to provide <a href="http://megapolitan.kompas.com/read/2017/01/30/09451991/benarkah.5.juta.penduduk.dki.belum.dapat.air.pam.seperti.kata.anies.">free pipeline installation for residents during his election campaign</a>.</p>
<h2>The commodification of water in Jakarta</h2>
<p>Indonesia <a href="http://www.futuredirections.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Indonesian-Water-Security-Improving-but-Still-Subject-to-Shocks.pdf">has 21% of the Asia-Pacific’s total water supply</a> so it shouldn’t be a water-scarce country. However, only 70% of the total population have access to potable water (even fewer have access to sanitation). </p>
<p>The country is suffering from water scarcity. The World Resource Institute has predicted that <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21709541-water-scarce-because-it-badly-managed-dry-facts">Indonesia would face high water stress by 2040</a>. </p>
<p>One explanation for this problem is the poor water management system. Another reason is the privatisation of water services in Jakarta, which has created an imbalance of public and business interests. This has increased water prices, forcing vulnerable communities to <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/12/18/jakarta-s-poor-forced-scrimp-costly-water.html">use a big chunk of their own income to pay for clean water</a>.</p>
<h2>History of privatisation</h2>
<p>The privatisation of water services in Jakarta began in 1991 under the Water Sector Adjustment project with a $92 million loan from the World Bank. It was a project to find a “way out” from the major problems surrounding Jakarta’s water supply system management, including the low quality of water, a lack of investment, and vulnerability to corruption.</p>
<p>The 20-year concession contracts were signed in 2001 with two water multinationals, Suez (France) and Thames (UK), after an initial agreement in 1997. Once these contracts were enforced, Jakarta transferred the service to the private sector, entrusting them to regulate the city’s water supply.</p>
<p>The Jakarta Water Supply Regulatory Body said <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07900620600648415?journalCode=cijw20">in 2004 that privatisation aimed to provide 100% coverage of water supply by 2017</a>. But, Jakarta has received none of what was predicted. As of late 2016, less <a href="http://www.depkes.go.id/resources/download/profil/PROFIL_KES_PROVINSI_2016/11_DKI_Jakarta_2016.pdf">than half of Jakarta’s residents can access safe drinking water</a>. </p>
<h2>Unfair water distribution</h2>
<p>The significant rise the water tariff from <a href="http://www.municipalservicesproject.org/userfiles/OurPublicWaterFuture_Chapter_two.pdf">Rp1,700 (12 US cents) per cubic meter in 2001</a> (the concession’s beginning) to <a href="http://www.brpamdki.org/tariff-info/detail/87/">Rp7,025 per cubic meter in 2016</a>illustrates the increased barriers to accessing water in Indonesia’s capital. </p>
<p>In addition, pipe installation concentrates on Jakarta’s middle to upper class residences. Data from PAM Jaya showed that <a href="http://www.pamjaya.co.id/cakupan-layanan">just over 55%</a> of water distribution in the city’s west was targeted at middle-upper income households, condominiums and commercial interests.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, in low-income areas, water outages can last for days. </p>
<p>During a interview with us in January 2017, Urban Poor Network’s coordinator, Eni Rochayati, said water scarcity in North Jakarta’s densely-populated Penjaringan was an issue people had dealt with for years without any adequate solution.</p>
<p>Despite this, Indonesia used its most recent submission for the UN’s sustainable development targets to claim access to <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/15705Indonesia.pdf">clean water and sanitation facilities - including tap water, public tap water, rainwater reservoir, as well as artesian and pump wells - had improved.</a></p>
<p>This isn’t totally without basis, as the proportion of poor and vulnerable groups accessing clean water in Indonesia has increased slightly from <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/15705Indonesia.pdf">61.57% in 2015 to 61.94% in 2016</a>. </p>
<p>However, the increase is very small and Indonesia could have done more if it had a clearly defined water policy.</p>
<h2>Public pressures and the Court’s decision</h2>
<p>Jakarta water problems have sparked the emergence of citizen’s movements, grouping together as the Coalition of Jakarta Residents Opposing Water Privatisation.</p>
<p>The coalition filed a citizen’s lawsuit to the District Court, demanding the annulment of privatisation contracts. In 2015, the Court granted the annulment, ruling that <a href="https://news.detik.com/berita/2868632/gugatan-privatisasi-air-warga-kalahkan-pemprov-dki-dan-perusahaan-air-asing">the contracts are unlawful according to article 33 of the Constitution</a>. The article stipulates that water ownership <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---ilo_aids/documents/legaldocument/wcms_174556.pdf%22">“shall be used to the greatest benefit of the people</a>.</p>
<p>After another year of legal battle, the Supreme Court upheld the Coalition’s suit in October 2017. The Supreme Court stated there was ”<a href="https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20171011072626-12-247577/putusan-ma-perintahkan-negara-setop-swastanisasi-air-jakarta">negligence in providing the fulfilment and protection of human rights of water to their citizens, especially the people of Jakarta</a>“.</p>
<h2>From profit to service</h2>
<p>With remunicipalisation now taking place, PAM Jaya and the government must shift their attention to a service-oriented rather than profit-driven water system, and retain control of Jakarta’s water sector. </p>
<p>Full ownership or control over the provision’s key operations is one option. Another is adopting a blueprint to strengthen cooperation among government stakeholders. </p>
<p>PAM Jaya and the government must develop a "road map” to establish a coherent plans on infrastructure development, financial arrangement, and human capital. But they should also ensure <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095717870700015X">advanced participation and transparency mechanisms</a>accompany the process. </p>
<p>Twelve-thousand kilometres away in Europe, Paris offers one lesson in creating a transparent space for customers and citizens to monitor water services.</p>
<p>When it remunicipalised its water sector in 2010, the French city used remunicipalisation to strengthen its citizen engagement. It established the <a href="https://www.tni.org/files/download/ourpublicwaterfuture-1.pdf">Paris Water Observatory</a> to make a space for citizens to observe, collect information, and keep water service administrators publicly accountable. With strong community participation, the city is striving to create an egalitarian water management system. </p>
<p>Jakarta can deliver efficient and effective service performance for its residents, ensuring universal access to sanitary water, but must keep examples like Paris at the forefront of its thinking.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/89320/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Para penulis tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi di luar afiliasi akademis yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>Jakarta is finishing its water plan to have more public power in the private tap water service. However, the plan is unclear and likely to give small impact to the city’s unequal water distribution.Marwa, Assistant Lecturer at the Department of International Relations, Universitas Gadjah Mada Dio Herdiawan Tobing, Research Associate at the ASEAN Studies Center, Universitas Gadjah Mada Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/869162018-01-31T10:35:33Z2018-01-31T10:35:33ZCreative hubs spur innovation - but also a potentially growing digital divide<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/203623/original/file-20180127-100896-18pt5ff.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1%2C0%2C994%2C666&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The trend in establishing start-ups, collaboration and “freelancing” contributed to the growing market of co-working and virtual spaces.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In Indonesia, creative hubs such as co-working spaces and makerspaces are becoming places where original ideas are turned into action. However, while their growth may spur innovation, it may also worsen the digital and economic divide between cities and rural areas. </p>
<h1>Space for creativity</h1>
<p>Creative hubs is a term made popular by the British Council to identify “a place, either physical or virtual, which brings creative people together”. </p>
<p>In Indonesia, most of these hubs come in the form of co-working spaces (membership based working space), makerspaces (eg, workshops with communal production tools), or creative spaces (eg, independent art galleries). </p>
<p>All of these spaces provide an environment where ideas can thrive and plans can be materialised. Code Margonda in Depok, West Java for example, is home to several startups. Whereas Makedonia in Jakarta lends 3D printers to (high school) students allowing them to experiment for free. </p>
<p>These spaces in community buildings allow new ideas and approaches to flourish. The development of such spaces in Indonesia grew steadily in Bandung, Jakarta, Surabaya and Yogyakarta between 2002 and 2010. Jakarta saw several co-working spaces emerge between 2010 and 2012. The rapid growth of these hubs is shown in the graph below.</p>
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<p>However, as shown above, a real surge took place between 2012 and 2014, in which the number of hubs tripled within only two years. The shift towards digital technology in the last five years has made networks of ideas and individuals become more important than permanent physical space. </p>
<p>The trends in establishing startups, collaboration and “freelancing” contributed to the growing market of co-working and virtual spaces. Co-working spaces answer the need of individual freelance workers who could never see their needs accommodated by the mushrooming coffee shops with limited (but complimentary) wi-fi connection. </p>
<p>The rise of co-working spaces was therefore timely. It also signified the growing creative and tech sector in the world’s fourth most populous country.</p>
<h2>Creative hubs are unique – and its ecosystem dynamic</h2>
<p>The rise of co-working spaces is both a social and economic phenomenon, especially in relation to the rise of digital startups and internet economy. Among the younger generations, spending productive time in co-working spaces has become a new need - and norm. </p>
<p>This results in a landscape of creative hubs that is far from homogeneous. Some hubs such as Makedonia and Code Margonda are built on the principles of independence with a “Do-It-Yourself” flair. These hubs emphasise the importance of community and collaboration. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the spectrum we have hubs operating off the back of venture capital funds (eg, Cre8 backed by Kejora Venture, EV Hive backed by East Venture), providing them with more resources to invest in buying or renting properties and setting up flashy work spaces.</p>
<p>Venture capital-backed spaces have more advanced business planning. This makes up for their lack of engagement with already established individuals and networks. The differences between capital and community driven co-working spaces have created tensions between these spaces. </p>
<p>These differences are also at the source of a potentially growing divide. As has been pointed out <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-digital-economy-is-no-leveller-its-a-source-of-inequality-36714">by other writers</a>, these co-working spaces may become just another silo of “isolated digital entrepreneurs” without real connection to other sectors of the economy. In this sense, co-working spaces may perpetuate already existing inequalities in infrastructure, access and opportunity. </p>
<p>This is where the government can come into play by levelling the playing field.</p>
<p>The Indonesian government, through its Creative Economy Council (BEKRAF), should intervene by establishing more creative spaces outside Indonesia’s major cities.</p>
<h2>Challenge and Prospect</h2>
<p>Owners of “grass-root” creative hubs in Indonesia are generally resilient. They have learned, often the hard way, to be adaptable from the very beginning. As the market is still volatile, creative hub managers have a tough task in building their product from scratch, educating their customers whilst staying true to their values and products. </p>
<p>As the market still needs to be made aware of the services offered by co-working spaces, financial sustainability becomes the most imminent issue to tackle. This has led them to be innovative in their operations. As attracting members has proven to be difficult, creative hubs’ main source of income is gained through monetising programs (eg, running workshops, holding seminars, etc). These finding in our 2017 survey findings can be seen in the graph below. </p>
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<p>Despite all these challenges, space managers show a healthy amount of optimism when it comes to predicting the future. From our survey, hub managers show a glowing confidence in sector, with an average optimism of 8.275 (on a scale of 0-10) based on our question on the outlook of creative hubs. An optimism that is worth sharing, if the whole sector can find a bigger space for inclusivity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86916/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fajri Siregar tidak bekerja, menjadi konsultan, memiliki saham, atau menerima dana dari perusahaan atau organisasi mana pun yang akan mengambil untung dari artikel ini, dan telah mengungkapkan bahwa ia tidak memiliki afiliasi selain yang telah disebut di atas.</span></em></p>The growth of creative hubs is good for innovation but it may also widen a digital and economic divide in Indonesia.Fajri Siregar, PhD Candidate, University of AmsterdamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/788492018-01-30T08:58:17Z2018-01-30T08:58:17ZJakarta: social and housing justice should not be a gamble on global market’s table<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/182654/original/file-20170819-7952-4qc8wr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Owners of houses in Kampung Tongkol in North Jakarta partially remove their houses and renovate them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alessandra Renzi</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As a sociologist and media scholar with an interest in emerging forms of civic engagement, I initially came to Jakarta - the world’s Twitter capital - to research innovative social media uses. </p>
<p>Instead, my first visits to an informal settlement near an estuary, Kampung Tongkol, in 2015 in North Jakarta, revealed something more hybrid: mixed-media <a href="http://www.unglobalpulse.org/blog/data-action-when-communities-engage-mapping-urban-villages-together">participatory</a> mapping of the settlement’s physical and socio-economic infrastructure. They have also volunteered to partially remove their housing to make way for a road on the riverbank in the hope to avoid forced evictions, which usually happened to build a riverbank road. </p>
<p>Since those initial visits, I have seen the three kampung, <a href="http://kampungkota.net/2017/10/05/gudang-tua-yang-menyimpan-sejarah-kampung-tongkol/">Tongkol</a>, <a href="http://kampungkota.net/2017/10/05/bin-jamin-dan-para-jawara-kampung-lodan/">Lodan</a> and <a href="http://kampungkota.net/2017/10/06/perkara-hidup-dan-mati-di-kampung-kerapu/">Kerapu</a>, become prototypes for sustainable flood prevention, stewardship of the river and small-scale economic development. I have observed the weekly cleanings of the Ciliwung, and documented composting and waste recycling and the growth of veggie and fruit gardens. </p>
<h2>Forced evictions’ connection with property investment</h2>
<p>Jakarta real estate development plays a big role in the economic growth of the country. The new malls, plazas and condo towers convey the image of a modern and cosmopolitan capital. Moreover, these properties are the focus of transnational investment. </p>
<p>The investment is less about buying houses and more akin to playing the stock market. It performs obscure financial operations that provide the flow of virtual capital needed for the development of both commercial and private property. It is known as secondary mortgage facility, <a href="http://www.housingfinance.org/uploads/Publicationsmanager/9709_Indo.pdf">developed for years</a> and <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/02/13/indonesia-determined-develop-secondary-mortgage-market.html">finally introduced in 2009</a>. Investors everywhere in the world buy financial packages that collect stakes in development projects rather than specific buildings. </p>
<p>This kind of speculation offers very high gains at very high risk. But, because it attracts investment and increases the demand for construction, the private sector and government alike welcome it. </p>
<p>In Jakarta, real estate development is also indissolubly tied to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/nov/22/jakarta-great-garuda-seawall-sinking">construction of water infrastructure through public-private partnerships</a>. The <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-09-15/trying-confront-massive-flood-risk-jakarta-faces-problem-top-problem-0">National Capital Integrated Coastal Development (NCICD)</a>, or giant seawall, is closely linked to <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/01/13/developer-driven-reclamation-leaves-public-behind.html">Jakarta Bay reclamation project</a>. They rise from this global investment vision to build a waterfront city and despite the controversy and lawsuits both projects are still on the table. </p>
<p>NCICD is a public-private partnership to protect Jakarta from tidal flood by closing Jakarta Bay. It has changed plans several times including a plan to make it look like a giant bird called Garuda. The latest from the central government shows a plan with <a href="https://www.cnnindonesia.com/nasional/20170428074619-20-210792/selimut-reklamasi-teluk-jakarta-bernama-ncicd">the outer wall attached to 17 artificial islands planned in a reclamation project</a>. </p>
<p>The project of “<a href="http://citiscope.org/citisignals/2015/jakarta-aims-normalize-ciliwung-river">normalisation</a>” of the waterways is another unsustainable endeavour to manage flooding by widening and dredging rivers and clearing areas for <a href="https://wn.com/jokowi_to_open_pluit_dam_park_tomorrow">beautification projects</a> that do not target the real causes of flooding in the city. Water experts have said <a href="https://metro.sindonews.com/read/828381/31/jakarta-perlu-daerah-resapan-1390229672">rapid development and the loss of water catchment areas</a> as one of the main causes of flooding in Jakarta. </p>
<p>Despite the fact that all these projects have a harmful impact on the <a href="http://www.newmandala.org/floods-and-forced-evictions-in-jakarta/">local population</a> and that <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/10/27/kampung-pulo-flood-has-shifted-to-kemang-bnpb.html">floods still happen after evictions</a>, they attract <a href="http://megapolitan.kompas.com/read/2013/11/11/0906117/Tanah.Sekitar.Waduk.Pluit.Diprediksi.Capai.Rp.39.Juta.Per.Meter">investment</a>. Jakarta’s government is betting on saving the city with costly, risky and unsustainable projects. </p>
<p>With these projects and investment, the future of the kampung residents is being gambled on the global trade market. This construction boom and infrastructure building has been accompanied by a rise in <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/10/26/bukit-duri-evictees-entitled-to-rp-18-6-billion-in-compensation.html">legally dubious</a> and traumatic evictions of thousands of families from their homes and communities. </p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/04/13/forced-evictions-remain-rampant-in-jakarta-lbh-jakarta.html">2016</a> alone there were 193 evictions (80 more than in 2015) impacting 5,726 families and 6,379 businesses. Many of those who lost their homes and livelihood were unlawfully and violently <a href="https://www.bantuanhukum.or.id/web/seperti-puing-laporan-penggusuran-paksa-di-wilayah-dki-jakarta-tahun-2016/">evicted</a>, according to Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Jakarta (Jakarta Legal Aid Institute). </p>
<p>At the same time, the alternative <a href="https://www.bantuanhukum.or.id/web/mereka-yang-terasing-laporan-penggusuran-paksa-rumah-susun/">housing</a> provides a place only to a minority of the evicted families. The housing is also inadequate, expensive and often far away from any work or business opportunities. Many more <a href="https://tirto.id/berebut-tanah-polisi-pengusaha-dan-warga-di-kapuk-poglar-cCXz">evictions will happen</a> and they will only exacerbate these problems. </p>
<h2>A community makes a gamble</h2>
<p>This is how Jakarta has forced to the gambling table the residents of kampung Tongkol, Lodan, and Kerapu as well as many other communities affected by the development plans. They are betting their livelihoods, social and family networks and economic prospects, not only to save their homes and communities but also to envision a more sustainable Jakarta. They want to present an alternative global vision of urban development. </p>
<p>Groups like the <a href="http://www.urbanpoor.or.id">Urban Poor Consortium</a> and the<a href="https://www.facebook.com/ManusiaSungai/"> Anak Kali Ciliwung Community</a> in Tongkol, Lodan and Krapu have stopped waiting for the government to recognise their land rights and have been busy with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/nov/25/jakarta-kampung-tongkol-eco-future-river-community--green-to-fight-eviction-threat">sustainable planning, urban design and infrastructure creation to increase the social and economic value of the kampung</a>. The autonomous creation of services is nothing new but this anti-eviction work has reached a whole new level of creativity and vision. </p>
<p>To overturn the accusation that they are dirty illegal squatters, the residents of three <em>kampung</em>, local name for informal settlements, improved their kampung on their own. The improvement involved voluntarily slicing a section of their houses close to the Ciliwung Tributary to make more space for passage and activities. They did so, while using traditional and sustainable materials like bamboo to upgrade the remaining portion of these <a href="http://www.architectureindevelopment.org/project.php?id=570">houses</a>. </p>
<p>The three communities are also drawing attention to the existing archaeological ruins and working with artists to bring more cultural production to the area. They are undoing the common misconception that kampungs are slums by attracting visitors to their communities and producing local goods for sale. </p>
<p>This kind of work was only possible through capillary organising, participatory planning and by sacrificing much of what is needed for survival. Many researchers recognise the value of these socio-economic networks for a city like <a href="http://www.onlineopen.org/media/article/541/open_edit_2017_renzi_jakarta.pdf">Jakarta</a>. Supporting the work of Tongkol, Lodan and Kerapu is not simply a human rights effort, it is important because they contribute to a new <a href="http://pacificaffairs.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2016/04/pdfhollandprizePadawangiDouglass.pdf">vision</a> of a megacity that gains value from sustainable housing, zero waste production, and small-scale, flexible economies. </p>
<p>This recognition has led scholars from a variety of local and international universities to <a href="http://repurposing-research.org/Data-Activism">bolster</a> this work with <a href="https://untardaily.wordpress.com/2017/05/23/bahas-banjir-jakarta-bersama-untar-dan-northeastern-university/">research</a> and <a href="https://rujak.org/">expertise</a>. These interactions are deeply enriched by knowledge exchange between local communities and the scholars. A <a href="https://metro.tempo.co/read/news/2017/06/23/083887015/gugun-muhammad-agen-perubahan-kampung-pinggir-ciliwung">variety</a> of NGOs and organizations from civil society are also interested in acknowledging and seeing this work scale up to include other kampung. </p>
<p>Granting land tenure to the urban poor could turn these efforts into a well-organized experiment in bottom-up urban design. It would make Jakarta a leader in countering the global trend of expelling vulnerable populations from the core of society, which sociologist Saskia Sassen documents in her in-depth <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674599222">study</a> of the global economy. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, those in power still prefer to sit at a gambling table where the cards are marked and the odds are set against the urban poor. It will take more pressure from public opinion to lead the government to see the value of a land tenure reform.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78849/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alessandra Renzi has facilitated research and media production around flood mitigation in collaboration with the Urban Poor Consortium. Funding for this research-creation project was provided by Northeastern University.</span></em></p>Some kampung in Jakarta have become hubs from participatory design and sustainable urban planning.Alessandra Renzi, Associate professor, Concordia UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.